The value of statistical life and cost-benefit evaluations of landmine clearance in Cambodia

Development agencies spend approximately US$400 million per year on landmine clearance. Yet many cost-benefit evaluations suggest that landmine clearance is socially wasteful because costs appear to far outweigh social benefits. This paper presents new estimates of the benefits of clearing landmines based on a contingent valuation survey in two provinces in rural Cambodia where we asked respondents questions that elicit their tradeoffs between money and the risk of death from landmine accidents. The estimated Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) is US$0.4 million. In contrast, most previous studies of landmine clearance use foregone income or average GDP per capita, which has a lifetime value of only US$2,000 in Cambodia. Humanitarian landmine clearance emerges as a more attractive rural development policy when appropriate estimates of the VSL are used

The value of statistical life and cost–benefit evaluations of landmine clearance in Cambodia

Development agencies spend approximately US$400 million per year on landmine clearance. Yet many cost–benefit evaluations suggest that landmine clearance is socially wasteful because costs appear to far outweigh social benefits. This paper presents new estimates of the benefits of clearing landmines based on a contingent valuation survey in two provinces in rural Cambodia where we asked respondents questions that elicit their trade-offs between money and the risk of death from landmine accidents. The estimated Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) is US$ 0.4 million. In contrast, most previous studies of landmine clearance use foregone income or average GDP per capita, which has a lifetime value of only US$ 2,000 in Cambodia. Humanitarian landmine clearance emerges as a more attractive rural development policy when appropriate estimates of the VSL are used

Landmines

This paper estimates the causal impact of landmines on child health and household expenditures in Angola by exploiting geographical variations in landmine intensity. We generate exogenous variation in landmine intensity using the distance between communes and rebel headquarters. As predicted by our theoretical model of rebel mining, landmine intensity is found to be a decreasing function of the distance to a set of rebel headquarters. Instrumental variables estimates, based on two household surveys and the Landmines Impact Survey, indicate that landmines have large and negative effects on weight-for-age, height-for-age and household expenditures. We discuss our results with respect to the costs and benefits of landmine clearance.civil war, landmines, instrumental variables, household expenditures, height-for-age, weight-for-age, Angola.

Economic Consequences of Wars: Evidence from Landmine Contamination in Mozambique

This paper evaluates the economic returns to improved households access to infrastructure, public services and land in the context of a large landmineclearance program in post-war Mozambique. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines production and use estimates that there are more than 80 billion landmines in the ground in more than 80 countries. Despite the scale of the problem and large investments by OECD countries to clear mines in low income countries, the economic consequences of landmine contamination have been so far unexamined by economists working on the economics of wars, perhaps due to the lack of data thus far. The evaluation uses a unique dataset on landmine contamination intensity covering 126 Mozambican districts to evaluate the causal impact of landmine contamination on income and welfare. The method uses a difference-in-difference estimator to correct for selection in landmine placement. I find large and statistically significant effects of landmine contamination on poverty (in level and depth) and consumption per capita. Hence, the cost-benefit analysis indicates that despite the high cost to clear a mine under reasonable assumptions the program generates a positive return.war, poverty, landmines, difference-in-difference estimator, cost-benefit analysis

Landmines, Poverty and Recovery: Instrumental Variables Evidence from Mozambique

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines production and use estimates that there are more than 80 billion landmines in the ground in more than 80 countries. Despite the scale of the problem and large investments by OECD countries to clear mines in low income countries, the economic consequences of landmine contamination have been so far unexamined by economists working on the economics of wars, perhaps due to the lack of data thus far. This paper exploits a unique dataset on landmine contamination intensity covering 126 Mozambican districts. Because landmines (unlike other weapons) are used as a weapon of choice to protect territories, the empirical strategy uses an indicator of distance to strategic borders as an instrumental variable to correct for selection in landmine placement. Instrumental variables estimates indicate a large effect of landmine contamination on poverty and consumption several years after the ceasefire. Hence, despite the very high cost to clear a mine a conservative costbenefit evaluation of the national demining program indicates that the program generates a large positive return.

Mine Action in Myanmar

In two Myanmar states, Danish Demining Group and Danish Refugee Council recently conducted a landmine victims survey that helped to document the epidemiology of landmine accidents and the situation of landmine victims more efficiently as well as recommend improved services to landmine survivors and persons with disabilities

The SIMCA algorithm for processing Ground Penetrating Radar data and its use in landmine detection

The main challenge of ground penetrating radar (GPR) based land mine detection is to have an accurate image analysis method that is capable of reducing false alarms. However an accurate image relies on having sufficient spatial resolution in the received signal. But because the diameter of an AP mine can be as low as 2cm and many soils have very high attenuations at frequencies above 3GHz, the accurate detection of landmines is accomplished using advanced algorithms. Using image reconstruction and by carrying out the system level analysis of the issues involved with recognition of landmines allows the landmine detection problem to be solved. The SIMCA (’SIMulated Correlation Algorithm’) is a novel and accurate landmine detection tool that carries out correlation between a simulated GPR trace and a clutter1 removed original GPR trace. This correlation is performed using the MATLAB R processing environment. The authors tried using convolution and correlation. But in this paper the correlated results are presented because they produced better results. Validation of the results from the algorithm was done by an expert GPR user and 4 other general users who predict the location of landmines. These predicted results are compared with the ground truth data

A 2D processing algorithm for detecting landmines using Ground Penetrating Radar data

Ground Penetrating Radar(GPR) is one of a number of technologies that have been used to improve landmine detection efficiency. The clutter environment within the first few cm of the soil where landmines are buried, exhibits strong reflections with highly non-stationary statistics. An antipersonnel mine(AP) can have a diameter as low as 2cm whereas many soils have very high attenuation frequencies above 3GHZ. The landmine detection problem can be solved by carrying out system level analysis of the issues involved to synthesise an image which people can readily understand. The SIMCA (’SIMulated Correlation Algorithm’) is a technique that carries out correlation between the actual GPR trace that is recorded at the field and the ideal trace which is obtained by carrying out GPR simulation. The SIMCA algorithm firstly calculates by forward modelling a synthetic point spread function of the GPR by using the design parameters of the radar and soil properties to carry out radar simulation. This allows the derivation of the correlation kernel. The SIMCA algorithm then filters these unwanted components or clutter from the signal to enhance landmine detection. The clutter removed GPR B scan is then correlated with the kernel using the Pearson correlation coefficient. This results in a image which emphasises the target features and allows the detection of the target by looking at the brightest spots. Raising of the image to an odd power >2 enhances the target/background separation. To validate the algorithm, the length of the target in some cases and the diameter of the target in other cases, along with the burial depth obtained by the SIMCA system are compared with the actual values used during the experiments for the burial depth and those of the dimensions of the actual target. Because, due to the security intelligence involved with landmine detection and most authors work in collaboration with the national government military programs, a database of landmine signatures is not existant and the authors are also not able to publish fully their algorithms. As a result, in this study we have compared some of the cleaned images from other studies with the images obtained by our method, and I am sure the reader would agree that our algorithm produces a much clearer interpretable image

Inverse Problem Solution in Landmines Detection Based on Active Thermography

Landmines still affect numerous territories in the whole world and pose a serious threat, mostly to civilians. Widely used non-metallic landmines are undetectable using metal detector. Therefore, there is an urging need to improve methods of detecting such objects. In the present study we introduce relatively new method of landmines' detection: active infrared thermography with microwave excitation. In this paper we present the optimization based method of solving inverse problem for microwave heating. This technique will be used in the reconstruction of detected landmines geometric and material properties