Abstract

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Paper
A Proposed New World Standard for Humanitarian Demining Map Symbols
Track: Sustainable Development and Humanitarian Affairs
Author(s): John Kostelnick, Jerome Dobson, Alan Arnold, Stephen Egbert, Matthew Dunbar

A new world standard is proposed for cartographic representation of land mines, minefields, and mine actions (mine education, technical surveys, clearance, etc.). Currently, there is no standard, and great disparity exists even among neighboring countries where land mines are common. The proposed standard, recently developed for the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) by geographers at the University of Kansas, certainly will be employed by operational demining programs throughout the world, but GICHD would also like to see it adopted by mapping agencies, GIS vendors, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). To promulgate the new standard, the American Geographical Society held workshops in New York, New York, and Reston, Virginia. Both workshops had a good presence of international organizations such as the United Nations, private firms such as Esri, and NGOs such as the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF). The enthusiasm shown by workshop attendees bodes well for a future global standard.

John Kostelnick
University of Kansas
Department of Geography
213 Lindley Hall
Lawrence , KS 66045
US
Phone: 785-864-5143
E-mail: kostel@ku.edu

Jerome Dobson
University of Kansas
Department of Geography
213 Lindley
Lawrence , KS 66045-7613
US
Phone: 785-864-5536
E-mail: dobson@ku.edu

Alan Arnold
Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining
7bis, avenue de la Paix
P.O. Box 1300
Geneva CH-1211
CH
Phone: +41 22 906 16 6
E-mail: a.arnold@gichd.ch

Stephen Egbert
University of Kansas
Department of Geography
213 Lindley
Lawrence , KS 66045-7613
US
Phone: 785-864-4252
E-mail: segbert@ku.edu

Matthew Dunbar
University of Kansas
Department of Geography
213 Lindley
Lawrence , KS 66045-7613
US
Phone: 785-864-1500
E-mail: mdunbar@ku.edu