AUK invites you to upcoming event “Examination of the environmental impact of UXO and weapon residues detected using drone-based and ground-based magnetometer surveys and quantified with laboratory magnetic and geochemical methods” as a part of Research Seminars at EPAM School of Digital Technologies devoted to current challenges in software engineering and computer science.

Large areas in Ukraine undergo missile attacks and artillery shelling resulting in contamination of land with with UXO, weapon residues and small size particulate matter. Weapon residues are sources of organic and inorganic harmful substances including heavy metals. They subsequently translocate to water, thus increasing the risk of human exposure. We propose to use the magnetic method as a tool for quantification of soil pollution with military-related HM emissions.

An increasing body of literature discusses topsoil magnetic measurements used as a proxy for HMs pollution from industrial and urban sources. Hopefully, magnetic methods could be applied in areas of battle fields, small-arm shooting ranges, artillery, mortar and rocket ranges, and grenade courts.

The action plan includes in-situ magnetometer surveys and magnetic susceptibility mapping, soil sampling and laboratory magnetic and geochemical measurements. Polluted soils and surface deposits are studied comparatively to unpolluted ones at the areas affected by the war in Ukraine.

Please welcome our speaker - Kseniia Bondar, Dr. Sci. (Geophysics), Assistant Professor of Department of Magnetism, Institute of Geophysics Polish Academy of Sciences. She has conducted many surveys of near-surface targets using different techniques of magnetometry, electrical resistivity tomography and ground penetrating radar. She also works in the field of soil magnetism investigating changes in magnetic properties and magnetic mineralogy of soils due to natural processes and anthropogenic pollution.