Differences in geographical coordinates of minefields in Colombia according to their acquisition method

Abstract

The scourge of explosive devices such as landmines, improvised explosive devices and unex-ploded ordnance, a product of armed conflicts in several countries around the world, has set a great precedent in the violation of fundamental human rights. In Colombia, the efforts of the government and NGOs to reduce their effects have succeeded in clearing minefields of more than 8 million square metres and destroying more than 7000 explosive devices. The standards for finding and clearing minefields (Confirmed Hazardous Areas - CHAs) include the determination of geographical coordinates (Latitude and Longitude) based on DATUM WGS84. However, the precision or accuracy in the location of these coordinates according to their capture method has been little studied and analysed, so this research investigates three methods for capturing coordinates on a simulated minefield (CHAs), finding interesting results: (1) The static method with dual frequency GNSS receivers presented a standard deviation of 4 millimetres corroborating a high accuracy, by Stop and Go it ranged between 4 and 19 millimetres with respect to the mean showing also a high accuracy, control by simple radiation confirmed obtaining a mean positional difference of 4.62 centimetres, (2) the capture of coordinates obtained with navigator yielded a mean positional difference of 219.28 centimetres, very similar to that obtained with (3) azimuths and distances without correction for a magnetic declination of 235.73; However, when corrected for magnetic declination, it gave a positional mean with correction of 53. 32, which showed a reliability of the method as long as the declination correction is applied and starting from a point with sufficient coordinate accuracy

Keywords

• humanitarian demining
• global positioning systems
• minefield
• confirmed hazardous areas
• geographic coordinates