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Space Assets for Demining Assistance
ARTES 20 Feasibility Study
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European Space Agency
Populations emerging from armed conflicts often remain threatened by landmines, unexploded cluster munition and other Explosive Remnants of War. The international Mine Action community is concerned with the relief of this threat. The Space Assets for Demining Assistance (SADA) undertaking is a set of projects that aims at developing new services to improve the socio-economic impact of mine action activities, primarily focused on the improved release of land thought to be contaminated, a process described as Land Release. This can be achieved by better prioritization of affected areas, more targeted allocation of resources, better identification of unaffected land (“reduction”), more efficient field operations and better reporting.
Who needs what? Mine Action is coordinated by National Mine Action Authorities and National Mine Action Centers, often supported by UN bodies such as UNMAS or UNDP. They need socio-economic impact mapping for prioritization purposes, and supporting information to determine which locales are likely to be affected, and, even more importantly, which are not. Representatives from 17 Mine Action Centers have participated in SADA needs definition. Suspected areas are surveyed and cleared by demining operators (typically NGO’s or commercial). Operators need detailed maps, more reliable and low-cost navigation and efficient reporting tools. Involved in SADA are FSD, MAG and MineTech. SADA is supported by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD).
Challenge Demining is labour intensive, risky and requires a conservative approach. Mine detection and clearance is still (and will continue to be) performed largely by traditional methods: by hand with metal detectors and prodders. Dogs and tiller machines can be used only in some cases, to improve confidence that land has been properly cleared. It is important to reduce as much as possible the amount of land that requires clearing, yet any method proposed for this must have near-absolute and proven reliability. Field equipment must be low-cost, intuitive and robust. Innovations must be easily deployable and generate immediate improvements.
SADA
Space Assets for Demining Assistance
ARTES 20 Feasibility Study 1 : Infoterra UK consortium
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European Space Agency
Within the framework of the European Space Agency’s ARTES 20 program the consortium consisting of Astrium, BAE Systems, and Cranfield University has been studying the assistance that space assets can provide to the mine action sector. The consortium has designed and validated two services to meet identified user requirements: a Decision Support Service for mine action organisations and national authorities, and a Field Support Service for use by technical survey and clearance teams.
SADA
Field Support Service
The Field Support Service consists of a range of capabili-ties to enable the effective use of satellite imagery to support field based mine action activities, the accurate re-cording of position information and enhanced navigation and communication capabilities, making use of differential GPS and satellite communications equipment.
Availability
Both the Decision Support Service and configura-tions of the Field Support Service are currently available for use by mine action organisations and national authorities.
Contact Details
For more information, please contact the consortium by email at:
or visit the consortium webpage at: http://iap.esa.int/projects/security/space-assets-for-demining-infoterra
Decision Support Service
The Decision Support Service consists of the provision of a range of information products proven to assist with decision making on land release and cancellation, mine action resource selection, planning and prioritisation. The information products are based on the highest resolution satellite imagery commercially available and provide accurate decision support information relevant to mine action including detail on: land use; indicators of the presence or absence of contamination; evidence of conflict; access considerations; factors that impact on the use of mine action resources; as well as topography including slope analysis.
The Decision Support Service has been validated and trailed in coordination with the Mine Action Coordination Centre of Afghanistan (MACCA) and its design is based on user needs and requirements identified from a wide range of organisations and national mine action programmes including the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), MineTech International, and the Sudan Mine Action Programme.
Example information product which fuses mine action information with very high resolution satellite imagery highlighting features relevant for decision making on land release.
Example information product identifying land in use based on Coherent Change Detection (CCD) which enables activities that disturb the ground to be detected. In this example, areas that have been dis-turbed are clearly identified using dark colours in the third image, based on comparison of the two sets of gathered sensor information in the first two images.
Information products are provided either as stand alone documents to inform decision making, or electronically for inclusion and analysis within IMSMA or other existing mine action information systems.
→ ARTES 20 - Space Assets for Demining Assistance Feasibility Study 2 : Radiolabs consortium (SAFEDEM)
SAFEDEM is one of the three consortia join-ing the ESA-SADA initiative. The key points of SAFEDEM are:
to offer a set of innovative services in a coherent framework, in order to help Mine Action practitioners in their activ-ities;
to bring satellite technologies in the Mine Action context, where up to now they are only partially exploited;
to deliver to the Mine Action users some well-established data processing techniques and Decision Support strat-egies coming from the research world;
to offer the UAV technologies for high-resolution data acquisition.
SAFEDEM answers to specific user needs and requirements providing a Service Port-folio of seven System & Service Concepts (SSCs). The SSCs are independent and com-plementary: the Mine Action users can take advantage of a subset of them, chosen ac-cording to their specific needs, but they will take out the most from the SAFEDEM solu-tion when using the SSCs altogether.
SAFEDEM System and Service
Concepts (SSCs) :
SSC1 SatImage
SSC2 MiniUAS
SSC3 T-maps
SSC4 MA-maps
SSC5 GeoBI
SSC6 FieldKit
SSC7 GeoPortal-SDI
SatImage, MiniUAS, T-maps and MA-maps are all related to the provision of images and maps. The Mine Action users will contact the SAFEDEM Service Provider whenever they will need satellite imagery for large areas or very high resolution images for smaller areas – the last ones being acquired on demand by means of a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) – or even thematic maps, chosen in a wide catalogue and going up to risk maps that the SAFEDEM Service will produce, also exploit-ing the data provided by the same users.
GeoBI will bring the power of a Decision Support System into the Mine Action arena, allowing the users to improve communication with donors about the achieved results and to obtain help in the planning and prioritiza-tion phase as well.
FieldKit will equip the Mine Action operator with a handy tool that will ease data collec-tion as well as data access when in the field.
GeoPortal-SDI will enable the Mine Action Community to collaborative manage, analyze, and exploit geo-data. It is based on Web GIS and Web 2.0 and follows an evolved approach of SDI.
SSC1 – SatImage Provision for historical and updated satellite images, ready to use.
Value: provide an easy, Mine Action oriented, “one-stop-shop” to search and retrieve updated and historical Earth Observation satellite images.
Value: offer a continuously updated Mine Action oriented assessment of available Earth Observation products.
SSC2 – MiniUAS Mini-Unmanned Aerial System for acquiring high-resolution imagery over suspected environments.
Value: provide an on-demand service to perform Very High Resolution image acquisition for Mine Action oriented small area surveys.
Value: define an acquisition tailored to the real needs of the users, with respect to resolution, type
of sensor, scheduling of operations, etc.
SSC3 – T-maps General purpose land use and background maps for planning and decision.
Value: provide an easy, Mine Action oriented, “one-stop-shop” to request and obtain updated the-matic maps, like land coverage or soil classification.
Value: offer a continuously updated Mine Action oriented assessment of available thematic maps products.
SSC4 – MA-maps Land use change and risk maps for supporting Land Release activities.
Value: provide a service for the production of specific Mine Action oriented thematic maps to sup-port the Land Release process, from minefield indicators up to risk maps.
Value: bring the Risk Management tools into the Mine Action planning activities aiming to reduce costs of general and non-technical surveys.
SSC5 – GeoBI Geo-BI Decision Support extension for IMSMA and other Mine Action databases.
Value: extend IMSMA with enhanced capabilities of information exploitation and Decision Support to Mine Action activities.
Value: provide an on-line web access to easy and self-service reporting, querying, analysis, and dashboards with Mine Action Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
SSC6 – FieldKit Android-based device with applications for Mine Action field operations.
Value: equip operators with an easy to use tool to access geo-information in the field, even when they are offline.
Value: improve the quality of data from the beginning, collecting them in a paper-free way that
avoids multiple error-prone transcriptions.
SSC7 – GeoPortal-SDI Cooperative production and exploitation of geo-data.
Value: provide an infrastructure for distributed sharing of geo-data and online collaborative creation of thematic maps.
Value: provide an easy geoportal to access and exploit geo-data even in mobility, both in online and offline mode.
Space Assets for Demining Assistance
ARTES 20 Feasibility Study 3 : INSA consortium
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European Space Agency
INSA leads a consortium in which also two companies participate, Expal and Hispasat. Jointly they have designed an integrated system and undertaken a proof of concept. The consortium combines expertise in remote sensing products provision and operational systems development, satellite communications provision and land release expertise in Mine Action.
Services proposed GMAA - for this stage of the land release process, a complete service providing strategic information for planning and prioritization of mine action activities is defined, including socioeconomic impact information and cartography support. Non Technical Survey - two services are provided that deliver supporting data
about the evidence of mine/ERW presence and absence in a specific region or area.
The first service focuses on identification/refinement of confrontation lines by
forest edges and ridges and the second one focuses on identification of changes in
the environment.
Technical Survey - This service describes and classifies in detail the vegetation and
the soil type presented in a specific region or area. Additionally an affordable
DGNSS (Differential Global Navigation Satellite System) solution can be integrated
for achieving high positional accuracy in the field. The objective reporting of post-
clearance benefits is supported by (semi-)automated processes.
Post-Clearance report
The report provides an
overview of recognizable
benefit and socio economic
effects of invested
donations. Examples are
the provision of the visible
outline of reconstructed
buildings, schools and
agricultural land that came
in use since the land was
released.
SADA
1996-2005 change detection map for Brcko (Bosnia and Herzegovina) test-site
Product Examples :
Project details INSA Project Manager: Fernando Valcarce. E-mail: [email protected]
For more information on the SADA activities please contact:
Michiel Kruijff (ESA) Email: [email protected]
Daniel Eriksson (GICHD) Email: [email protected]
The project is further described on http://iap.esa.int/projects/security/space-assets-for-demining-main-page
Indicators of Mine Presence Identification of (refined) con-frontation zones from a combination of analytical as-sessment, detection of forest edges, agricultural areas that are no longer in use and damaged or destroyed infrastructures. The analysis is based on satellite images (taken immediately after the conflict) integrated with the Mine Action Center’s database information.
Socioeconomic Impact Product Supports the prioritization of Suspected Hazard Areas (SHA) taking into account the combination of several indicators. The socioeconomic analysis is based on the following indicators:
Land use assessment
Contaminated land productivity estimation (according to the availability of reference data)
Infrastructures
Presence of hospitals, villages, rivers, roads, etc.
Forest edges (green lines) and ridges (brown lines) obtained vs. con-frontation lines (red lines) and minefields (yellow points) provided by BHMAC. Location: Doboj
Test-site of Shakar Dara, Afghanistan (hazard polygons provided by MACCA and priority areas classified by INSA).
Project details The implementing consortia are led resp. by In-foterra (UK), Radiolabs (I) and INSA (E).
For more information please contact:
Michiel Kruijff (ESA) Email: [email protected]
Daniel Eriksson (GICHD) Email: [email protected]
The project is further described on http://iap.esa.int/projects/security/space-assets-for-demining-main-page
SADA solution Three independent consortia have set out to design and validate a solution based on better integration and better use of existing space assets with established technologies and methods in Mine Action. Two key sets of services have been defined. The Decision Support Service combines georeferenced mine survey data, topographical, demographical data, Earth Observation imagery (historical and recent) and hi-resolution imagery from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to generate impact, risk and situation maps. The Field Support service integrates navigation, maps and reporting tools. A Business Intelligence solution integrated with the Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA) allows to make optimal and systematic use of the collected data.
Outcome Key features of the SADA approach have been validated with data from National Mine Action Centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Afghanistan. Other users such as Tajikistan (TMAC), Cambodia (CMAC) and operators (MAG, MineTech and FSD) have confirmed the outcome. More objective risk mapping and prioritization at national/regional level is now possible. Field operations can be more safe and more efficient with better maps. More integrated data entry and data analysis allows for better reporting and, on the long term, continued improvement of operational methodology.
Collaborating with ESA
The Integrated Application Promotion (IAP, or ARTES 20) programme funds feasibility studies and demonstrations. It aims at generating sustainable services which meet the needs of public and private organisations. SADA is just one example of IAP applications. Do you think that space technologies and services such as space imagery, satellite navigation, satellite communication, manned space technologies might help you better address your operational challenges? ESA’s IAP programme can make it happen. For further details please contact us at
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://iap.esa.int
Printed in March 2012
