SusDem'97

International Workshop on Sustainable Humanitarian Demining
Zagreb, Croatia, Sept 29 - Oct 1, 1997

A volume including rearranged and reviewed conference papers, as well as some additional contributions, has been published by the Humanitarian Demining Information Center: "Sustainable Humanitarian Demining: Trends, Techniques and Technologies" - Concepts and Issues Derived from the International Workshop on Sustainable Humanitarian Demining. Published by Mid Valley Press, Verona, VA, USA, December 1998, 344 pp. Available from HDIC at the James Madison University (http://www.hdic.jmu.edu/, E-mail hdic@jmu.edu).

Summary (from the Preface to the Conference Proceedings)

SusDem'97 is a workshop organized close to the minefields in order to concentrate on the problems faced by the deminers and on the solutions proposed to solve them quickly in a realistic and cost-effective way.

The first afternoon of the workshop is devoted to the visit of several minefields in the Karlovac area, and to demonstrations organized by the Ministry of the Interior and by the Mungos demining team. They are cordially thanked.

Participation has been restricted to persons belonging to organizations strongly involved in some aspects of humanitarian demining, having experienced solutions or working hard to develop new ones. It is good to see that this resulted in a majority of the participants having real demining experience in the field. Evaluation of new technologies (field testing), or definition of the requirements for such evaluations, will indeed be a key point of the discussions during the workshop.

These proceedings have been composed from the papers, of excellent level, sent in advance by the participants. Some important points of view and experiences are nevertheless missing; it is hoped that a new and more complete document, possibly also in CD-Rom and Web format, will be issued some time after the conference, taking care of the discussions and covering at best all the aspects of the difficult, but important, sustainable humanitarian demining problem.

It is also expected that the panel discussions and the active participation by the audience will allow to define what has to be done with priority to develop solutions that will be both accepted by deminers and meet the cost effectiveness required to trigger an increased support by industry, NGOs and the governments.

I thank the authors and the participants of this two and a half day workshop. Davor Antonic and Mrs Nedas Stambuck from Korema are cordially thanked for their efficient local organization.

Jean-Daniel Nicoud, Program Chairman
Sept. 23, 1997

"Unofficial" Summary by James Trevelyan, University of Western Australia (online at http://www.mech.uwa.edu.au/jpt/demining/susdem97-rep-s.html)

Aims (from the Call for Participation)

Important efforts have been made, and are still being made by the military, mostly in US, in order to develop technologies for post-conflict demining, that is for clearing roads from anti-tank mines and locating minefields, without any risk for the foreign specialists. The solutions being proposed are rather expensive, high-tech, and require well trained personnel.

The problem faced by humanitarian demining teams working patiently in Cambodia, Angola, and many other countries, is rather different. They have to remove an endless number of anti-personnel mines, relying on very limited funding and using mostly local people.

We have to find ways for making several of the technologies being developed for post-conflict demining available to the demining teams on the field, and develop new ones taking care of the terrain conditions, of the skills of the local deminers, of the NGO's funding, and of the local economy conditions.

SusDem'97 will take place in Zagreb (http://tjev.tel.fer.hr/hrvatska/HRgradovi/Zagreb/),
Croatia (http://www.hr/), not too far away from real minefields in the center of Europe.

Organizers

Davor Antonic, Interior Ministry J.D. Nicoud, DeTeC-LAMI-EPFL

HR-Zagreb, Croatia CH-1015 Lausanne

Fax +385 161-22318 Fax +41 21 693-5263

davor.antonic@fer.hr nicoud@epfl.ch

KoREMA (http://www.rasip.fer.hr/resource/korema/) Zagreb will handle the local organization

Program Committee

Harvard Bach, Norvegian Peoples Aid Patrick Blagden, CICR Consultant, GB

Allistair Craib, Baric Consultant, GB Hendrick Ehlers, MGM, Germany

Vernon Joynt, Mechem, South Africa James Trevelyan, Univ Western Australia

Tore Skedsmo, UN Peace keeping operations, USA Sam Sotha, Cambodia Mine Action Center

Richard Walden, Operation USA

Technical experts

Steve Azevedo, Lawrence Liv. Lab, USA Yvan Baudoin, Royal Mil Academy, Belgium

Al Bottoms, Naval Postgrad School, USA David Daniels, ERA Technology, GB

Hap Hambric, NVESD, Fort Belvoir, USA Stefan Havlik, Slovak Academy of Science

Hans Lok, National Defense Research Estab., Sweden Christian Pichot, Univ Nice, France

Stephen Salter, Edinburgh Univ, Scotland Hans Schiebel, Schiebel detectors, Austria

Alois Sieber, JRC-Ispra, Italy

Final structure of the workshop

Sunday, Sept 28 Arrival of participants in Zagreb

Monday, Sept 29 8h00 Workshop opening Welcome by the Croatian Ministry J.D. Nicoud Introduction to the Workshop 8h30 Session 1 Chairman: P. Blagden Supporting and planning a demining campaign P. Blagden The evolution of mine clearance operations since 1991 H. Thompson Insurance related to demining D. Loye Some sad figures and statistics about landmine victims Panel discussion with P. Tillet (UN), G.Gately (US Dept of Defense), ... 10h30 Session 2 Chairman: C. King The mines and the present methods for handling them C. King Mine clearance ... in the "real" world R. Berg Mine clearance activities within the Norwegian Army G. Lucas EOD operations Discussion 11h30 Preparation for the visit: the ethical, political and economical situation in the former yougoslavian countries 12h30 Departure to the Karlovac area (50 km south of Zagreb) Lunch on the Military polygon Visit of 2 minefields Demonstrations on the military polygon 19h00 Conference dinner near Karlovac Tuesday, September 30 8h00 Session 3 Chairman: H. Bach Methods on other minefields, improving the efficiency of demining H. Bach The NPA Global approach to the mine problem I. Bullpitt Demining in Afghanistan: a large-scale indigenous programme C. Bowness Demining for success: sustainable demining in Cambodia V. Joynt Mechem experience in South Africa Panel discussion with H.Hambric, D. Eimerl, M. Sepe, ... 10h00 Session 4 Chairman: A. Craib Mechanical solutions: how to validate and determine their cost-effectiveness G. Focsaneanu Mechanical clearance: a long overdue essential solution P. Licko, S. Havlick The demining flail and system BOZENA J. Dorko Experiences with UOS-155 S. Pajulathi Mine clearance vehicles SISU S. Salter, C. Gibson Electronic navigation system for the Dervish T. Williams Automating the probing process D. Antonic Improving the process of manual probing Discussion 13h00 Session 5 Chairman: H. Hambric MD and Radar technology, industrial constraints and plans for new products D.J. Daniels Radar techniques for mine detection P. Wickström Design aspects on a GPR-system for AP-mine detection H. Lok Development program for a hand-held minedetector A. Lauberts Concept study of a multisensor data fusion for mine detection B. Gros A GPR mine sensor for data acquisition on the field J. Brooks A survey of signal processing methods L. van Kempen Pattern recognition experiments for ultrasonic and GPR detection M. Storme Modelisation of electrical properties of soils J. Sieler Mine detection without ground effect J. Toews Landmine detectors evaluation trials Discussion 15h30 Session 6 Chairman: J. Trevelyan Hopes for future technologies and the role of universities J. Trevelyan Better tools for deminers R. Gasser Development of sustainable demining of farmland H. Hambric Tests on real fields made on the 1995-96 projects C. Bruschini A survey of current sensor technology research R. Woodfin Chemical sensors for classification of mine-like objects H. Tomita, T. McGregor The Japan alliance for Humanitarian demining support J.D. Nicoud Sensing TNT in the middle of a minefield B. Weetjens APOPO: Detection with trained rats L. Wetterholm The use of minedogs Discussion 17h00 Session 7 Chairman: J. Cornelis Coordinated projects M. Acheroy Belgian project on humanitarian demining (Hudem) J.T. Dean CEC feasibility study for a multi-sensor equipment C. Lowe UK-DERA counter minewarfare research program H. Hambric 38 new projects for 1997 Discussion Wednesday, October 1st 8h00 Session 8 Chairman: G. Gately What should be done within an "International Demining Center" P. Blagden The cost of technology in demining campaigns G. Focsaneanu Demining operations: a methodology/a solution D. Barlow The role of a demining information center J.T. Dean Plans of the EC and the role of JRC-Ispra D. Loye Improving the exchange of information among organizations Panel discussion with C.H.Schaller, J.Victorine, D.Layton, C.J.Persson 10h00 Session 9 Synthesis, priorities, future actions 12h30 Closing

N.B. Minor changements possible

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