<story><title>Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines</title><url>http://m.good.is/posts/hauntingly-beautiful-wildly-low-cost-solution-to-clearing-afghan-landmines</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>_djo_</author><text>Sadly, demining is not this simple or easy.&lt;p&gt;Mine rollers and mine flails like this have been tried and tested since WWI but none have proven completely effective in finding and clearing mines. This is partially because they only work well on totally flat terrain and rapidly lose effectiveness in rougher terrain where a large number of mines are typically buried.&lt;p&gt;In practice, solutions like this achieve only 50-60% effectiveness at clearing minefields, which makes them useless for civilian demining which demands a 99% clearance rate.&lt;p&gt;For that reason there&apos;s been a ton of research in this area which has resulted in better demining vehicles and interesting new techniques such as using sniffer dogs or rats to detect the explosives inside landmines. This is especially useful for the numerous plastic-shelled landmines that resist standard detection methods.&lt;p&gt;Using a layered approach with these techniques, civilian demining organisations like Mechem[0] (which pioneered the use of sniffer dogs) are now able to achieve a high enough clearance rate to make areas safe, though the work is expensive and time-consuming. If you support this sort of work, donating money to demining NGOs would be better than funding yet another ineffective mine roller.&lt;p&gt;[0]&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mechemdemining.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.mechemdemining.com/&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cflee</author><text>Turns out that the Dutch armed forces agree[1] that it&apos;s not so easy either:&lt;p&gt;&quot;The Mine Kafon has just been tested by the Dutch Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit, which has concluded that it is not suitable for mine clearance (which requires a more systematic approach), but at $50 each could be used as a cheap and safe way to identify dangerous areas that need demining.&quot;&lt;p&gt;[1]&lt;a href=&quot;http://australia.icbl.org/index_htm_files/May.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://australia.icbl.org/index_htm_files/May.pdf&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Low-cost Solution to Clearing Afghan Landmines</title><url>http://m.good.is/posts/hauntingly-beautiful-wildly-low-cost-solution-to-clearing-afghan-landmines</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>_djo_</author><text>Sadly, demining is not this simple or easy.&lt;p&gt;Mine rollers and mine flails like this have been tried and tested since WWI but none have proven completely effective in finding and clearing mines. This is partially because they only work well on totally flat terrain and rapidly lose effectiveness in rougher terrain where a large number of mines are typically buried.&lt;p&gt;In practice, solutions like this achieve only 50-60% effectiveness at clearing minefields, which makes them useless for civilian demining which demands a 99% clearance rate.&lt;p&gt;For that reason there&apos;s been a ton of research in this area which has resulted in better demining vehicles and interesting new techniques such as using sniffer dogs or rats to detect the explosives inside landmines. This is especially useful for the numerous plastic-shelled landmines that resist standard detection methods.&lt;p&gt;Using a layered approach with these techniques, civilian demining organisations like Mechem[0] (which pioneered the use of sniffer dogs) are now able to achieve a high enough clearance rate to make areas safe, though the work is expensive and time-consuming. If you support this sort of work, donating money to demining NGOs would be better than funding yet another ineffective mine roller.&lt;p&gt;[0]&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mechemdemining.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.mechemdemining.com/&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Vivtek</author><text>The difference is this costs 40 € and can clear a couple of mines for that money.  Afghanistan is not exactly rolling in cash, so any cheap improvement is a valuable addition to the toolbox - it provides a way for poor communities to do &lt;i&gt;something&lt;/i&gt; while they&apos;re waiting for America to donate enough money to clean up their mess.&lt;p&gt;My guess is that demining NGOs will be using something like this soon enough if it proves effective, though, so any donation dollar really is best sent there for maximum effectiveness.</text></comment>