Historic imagery and EROW studies

Historic Imagery and EROW Studies

In large parts of the world ‘Explosive remnants of war’ (EROW) from twentieth century conflict pose a continuing risk to human life, agriculture, and impose heavy additional costs on a variety of infrastructure renewal projects and commercial construction in general. 
In 1997, Chris Going took from his archaeological background an approach to synthesizing data on areas which had been heavily fought over or bombed, using not just image research, as was more usual at that time but operational orders and munitions expenditure reports to make more informative ‘peril maps’ of areas which had been fought over or heavily bombed. The archive data added significantly to the photographic information, particularly on bomb types used and the possibility of time-delay bombs, a growing hazard today, being present. 
Using wartime Allied and captured reconnaissance imagery in US and British archives he has carried out surveys either for Government Institutions or commercial clients, characterising risk within single areas (such as Oil refineries, harbour works, airports and parts of towns), or as components of larger infrastructure projects (for example new railway track and tunnels), in Germany, Austria (St Polten, Kufstein-Hall railway stretch), the Netherlands (Eindhoven, Uithoorn) , and Italy (the Trentino valley; oil refineries and works at Livorno, Bari, and Porto Maghera). Such work has immediately measurable financial benefits at community, and regional levels.

Did you miss our recent 
EROW webinar?

In partnership with Bayfield Training, Chris Going and Seppe Cassettari presented a half hour webinar on the importance of Explosive Remnants of  War (EROW), sometimes referred to as Unexploded Ordnance (UXO), to the real estate and construction industries across Europe and beyond.

Below Chris explains why this is potentially still a major issue

Is the danger of unexploded bombs still relevant today for the real estate and construction industries?

"Most definitely. During World War two 75,000 tonnes of bombs were aimed at UK targets and more than two and three quarter million tonnes were dropped on mainland Europe by the allies. Best estimates are that one in six did not explode as intended and about 7,500 remain undiscovered in Britain alone. 
The problem is worse in mainland Europe, with perhaps half a million bombs remaining to be found. If you add in the munitions that are constantly being dug up on the battlefields of the first world war and discovered in eastern Europe. It’s a huge, if little-known problem.
Also, as bombs get older, their fuze mechanisms decay, increasing the chances of a spontaneous explosion. Some are now so sensitive to shock they can be set off by vibrations alone. There are about two a year of these in Germany."

What is the potential impact on a project? 

"The impact can be huge. Finding a bomb unexpectedly brings all site work to a stop and it can take days to defuse and remove it as, to diminish disruption as much as they can, municipal authorities often schedule disposals for weekends. And often work cannot restart until the site has been fully surveyed for other ordnance. On average a bomb is unearthed in Germany every single day, in Austria, 5 a week.
In a town or city, where most bombs are found, evacuation zones with a radius of 250m or 500 meters are often imposed. This means thousands of local people may have to be evacuated. Sometimes these evacuations are very large. For example, in 2017 over 70,000 people were evacuated after a 4,000lb bomb was found on a central Frankfurt construction site. 
Delays are always costly –and at worst there is the danger of death or injury to your workers, plus there may be business interruption costs for surrounding offices and shops for which you may be liable.
Recovery costs -that is defusing and removal- are borne locally, and for a single incident costs are currently around have been put at 140,000- 200,000 Euros. However, it is worth examining what liabilities the developer may be incurring if they take short cuts."

How can I reduce the risk of these potential costs and delays?

"In some countries such as Germany and in parts of the UK an ordnance search can be mandatory. It is part of the planning process. However that is not the case in all parts of the world. Yet even if such a search is not required by law, it makes sense to carry one out. 
Surveys to assess whether a site is of above background risk are worth the investment. There’s also the due diligence issue. 
Recent UK projects, for example in Cardiff bay regeneration project required exploration for EROW. In Germany prospection work for ordnance began on the 300 hectare Tesla factory site 35 Kms east of Berlin in January 2020, six months before site works began in earnest. This has already discovered 7 Second world war bombs, and more are suspected. 
A small investment at the planning stage can be repaid many times over."

 Jargon Buster

EOD - Explosive Ordnance disposal

ROW - Remnants of war. That is all remains of manufactured military materiel, warlike stores, fixed defensive structures, and similar.

EROW - Explosive remnants of war. All battlefield munitions: bombs,    grenades, bullets, and emplaced weapons such as mines

UXO - Unexploded ordnance. All unexpended or failed EROW.

UXB - Unexploded bomb. Term used to describe failed, or unexpended air dropped weapons.

Current Projects

Bomber Command Database (BCD) Project
Unique map database of all RAF Bomber Command attacks during World War II based on specialist archives
In 1985 an agreement brokered between the German Government and the British MoD allowed authorities in the German Lander to copy Wartime reconnaissance imagery of Germany to help in the detection of unexploded bombs and to hold this cover in Germany.

Since then this imagery has been a cornerstone for analysts making risk assessments of construction projects.

But not all of this imagery is of the right scale: while Allied reconnaissance aircraft carried cameras which ensured broad coverage, well over two years of war elapsed before they had lenses to take photographs which were detailed enough to show bomb impacts.

So there are gaps in the cover, particularly for the earlier part of the war. Using specialist archive diagrams and maps made from Night photography, GeoHistoric has developed a process to create for each Land a GIS data layer showing the location of known RAF Bomber Command attacks.

Used in conjunction with existing German-held photographic cover, this GIS data layer will plug gaps in the German reconnaissance datasets, by highlighting attacks which significantly predate useful cover held in German archives, and also by identifying later attacks which went astray - surprisingly many - which were not therefore photographed in detail by later reconnaissance aircraft.

This information can lead to the effective choice of additional imagery to augment existing holdings.

It is also proposed to augment these data with information indicating attacks in which long delay fused bombs were dropped. 

Mögliche Projektnamen: Bomber Command  Database (BCD)
Einzigartige kartografische Datenbank allerBombenangriffe des RAF Bomber Command während des 2. Weltkriegs, basierend auf
Eine zwischen den deutschen Bundesländern und dem britischen Verteidigungsministerium ausgehandelte Vereinbarung ermöglichte es den Regionalbehörden im Jahre 1985, zwecks leichterer Ortung von Blindgängern Kopien von im Laufe des Krieges erstellten Aufklärungsbildern Deutschlands anzufertigen und dieses Bildmaterial in Deutschland aufzubewahren.

Seitdem dient dieses Material als unerlässliches Hilfsmittel für Analysten, die Risikobewertungen für Bauprojekte vornehmen.

Aber nicht all dieses Bildmaterial liegt im richtigen Maßstab vor: Die Aufklärungsflugzeuge der Alliierten verfügten zwar über Kameras, mit denen sich große Landstriche abbilden ließen, doch es vergingen mehr als zwei Kriegsjahre, ehe sie mit Objektiven ausgerüstet waren, die ausreichend detaillierte Fotos erzeugten, um Blindgänger orten zu können.
 
Dementsprechend ist das Bildmaterial lückenhaft, insbesondere, was die ersten Kriegsjahre anbelangt. Geoinformation Historic hat mit Hilfe spezieller Archivdiagramme und auf Nachtfotos beruhender Karten einen Prozess entwickelt, mit dem sich für jedes Bundesland eine GIS-Datenschicht erzeugen lässt, die anzeigt, wo bekanntermaßen RAF-Bombenangriffe stattgefunden haben.

Zusammen mit dem in Deutschland vorhandenen Bildmaterial wird diese GIS-Datenschicht Lücken in den deutschen Aufklärungsdatensätzen schließen, durch das Hervorheben von Angriffen, die sich zeitlich lange vor dem nutzbaren Bildmaterial in den deutschen Archiven zugetragen haben, und auch durch die Identifikation späterer Angriffe, die ihr Ziel verfehlten – was überraschend häufig vorkam – und für die deshalb keine detaillierten von Aufklärungsflugzeugen aufgenommenen Bilder vorliegen.

Diese Informationen können eine effektive Auswahl zusätzlichen Bildmaterials ermöglichen, um vorhandene Bestände zu ergänzen.

Es wird ferner vorgeschlagen, diese Daten mit Informationen über Angriffe zu ergänzen, bei denen Bomben mit Langzeitzündern abgeworfen wurden. 

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