Using UAVs to detect explosives and create maps in humanitarian demining

Russia's full-scale invasion has led to unprecedented contamination of Ukrainian territory with unexploded ordnance (UXO), making it one of the most mine-affected countries globally (approx. 144,000 sq km potentially hazardous). This poses a long-term lethal threat to civilians, hinders socio-economic recovery (especially in the agricultural sector), damages infrastructure, and harms the environment. Humanitarian demining is identified as a critically important process to eliminate these threats. It includes non-technical and technical surveys, mapping, marking, neutralization of UXO, and risk education for the population. The article emphasizes relevance of applying modern technologies to optimize this complex and dangerous process. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) play the key role in modernizing demining efforts. They enable remote surveys of large areas with minimal risk to personnel. The article details methods of using UAVs: equipping them with magnetometers to detect metallic objects, infrared (thermal) sensors to capture temperature anomalies from UXO, and multispectral/hyperspectral cameras to analyze changes in vegetation or detect specific materials. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and LiDAR are also mentioned. A crucial aspect is the integration of UAV data with geographic information systems (GIS) and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. This allows for the creation of detailed orthophotomaps, digital terrain models, automated image analysis, identification of potential threats, and construction of accurate risk maps. The study of the Petropavlivka OTHG territory is presented as an example, where UAVs and ArcGIS were used to identify explosion craters, define hazardous zones, and create 500-meter safety buffer zones. Despite certain challenges (e.g., detecting non-metallic mines), UAV technologies demonstrate high efficiency and hold immense potential for significantly accelerating the process of clearing Ukrainian land, saving lives, and facilitating post-war recovery.