A Model for Decision Support in Humanitarian Landmine Clearance Activities

Land release has typically been undertaken by the employment of demining assets, such as manual mine clearance teams, explosive detection animals and mechanical systems, used either individually or in combination. However, it is all too common that land is subjected to full and expensive clearance without actually locating any explosive hazards or when the evidence for such is very scarce or uncertain. In such instances cost efficiency of mine clearance is extremely poor. Due to this situation, the mine action sector must develop more effective methods and improve the rationality in resource allocation through the release of land through a more extensive use of technical and non-technical survey methods rather than employing demining assets so widerly. This paper address this issue by promoting a structured land release decision process supported by a decision making model for the classification of hazardous areas.