FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 23, 2007

DRI receives $300,000 grant to study landmine detection
Geologists will focus on desert soils to improve discovery techniques

RENO, Nev.—Don Sabol, a geologist at the Desert Research Institute, was awarded a $300,000 grant to study desert soils to better detect landmines by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) that are hazards to civilians and military personnel worldwide.

Sabol, along with co-principle investigators from DRI, Eric McDonald and Todd Caldwell, will specifically study four basic soil types at the US Army's Yuma Proving Ground to better characterize desert terrain to improve detection techniques of buried munitions, including landmines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). This work will be conducted at existing IED and countermine research sites.

“DRI has never received funding from this agency,” said Stephen Wells, DRI President. “This is a nice breakthrough for the institute and a significant step towards enhancing the protection of our nation's troops.”

Results from this project will leverage extensive research being conducted by DRI for the US Army focused on forecasting desert terrain conditions in support of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Technological advancements have resulted in a wide range of approaches available to address the worldwide problem of buried munitions. Effectiveness of these approaches depends upon soil composition, structure, and overall soil heterogeneity, as well as size, structure, composition, and depth of munitions' burial. Therefore, an understanding of how these soil properties affect the different mine-detection technologies is critical.

“The goal of this research is to thoroughly describe the significant processes that influence near surface soils in desert environments, so that monitoring, characterization and surveillance systems can more accurately detect disturbances that would indicate the presence of land mines or mine fields,” Sabol said.

The grant awards are part of this year's NGA University Research Initiative (NURI) program. The objective of the NURI program is to enhance U.S. universities' ability to perform research in geospatial science, mathematics and engineering topics integral to geospatial intelligence and, in conjunction with that research, provide education in related science and engineering areas critical to U.S. national security.

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