The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) has developed a set of map symbols that is in line with the IMAS 07.11 Land Release. The land release process is associated with geographic areas undergoing a series of activities aimed at releasing hazardous areas for productive use. Since mine action is inherently geographic, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) perform an important role in the management and analysis of land release data, and facilitate evidence-based decision making for planning, prioritization, reporting and monitoring. Serving as the graphical language on maps, intuitive cartographic symbols allow for a clear and standardized representation of the land release process and are thereby beneficial for promoting consistency, efficiency and safety in survey and clearance operations.1
The symbology takes into account the basic information requirements of the land release process by representing priority land and activity attribute values. The 11 point and 8 polygon symbols visualizing various land values, as well as 13 point symbols illustrating mine action activity values are listed as Annex C to the IMAS 07.11 Land Release.
The new land release symbols can be downloaded in different GIS compatible formats (style files and true font files) to be used for various desktop and web applications, such as IMSMA, ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Online, Google Earth, and others. The image URLs of point-symbols and detailed description of the polygon symbols are available on IMSMA Wiki (http://mwiki.gichd.org/IM/Symbology). The symbols are further integrated in the ESRI style library for ArcGIS Online.