CAR offers a system for assessing the risk from unexploded air-dropped weapons for a given geographic area, such as a region, city or individual site. CAR co-operates with geotechnical specialists in the planning of cost-effective location of unexploded ordnance (UXO), with public sector authorities involved in civil protection, and with private sector companies engaged in development projects. Much of the data that CAR collects to enable UXO detection has been utilised by a wide range of additional projects concerned with land use history and landscape change.

The Problem of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO)
World War II resulted in massive campaigns of aerial bombardment across areas of Europe, North Africa and East Asia where many millions of bombs were dropped on military, infrastructure and urban targets. A widely accepted ordnance failure rate of 10% means many thousands of unexploded bombs have yet to be found. Many industrial and military sites were subject to bombardment, leaving an additional legacy of chemical contamination, unstable ground and a loss of industrial records.

The accelerated expansion of infrastructure and redevelopment of brownfield sites has led to regular finds of UXO and other contamination in recent years, resulting in loss of life, damage to infrastructure and major disruption to construction projects.

Approach
The CAR approach is based on archival research on World War II Allied aerial bombing. A comprehensive air photo and attack data record is assembled for a region or urban area. The details of the location, number and type of bombs dropped on the study area is recorded and these data are combined with historic air photos in order to plot bomb impacts on modern maps, and define the geographic extent of the risk. If the quality of data permits, CAR can zoom in on individual sites for a more detailed risk analysis.

CAR can offer clients a range of services from desktop research to full mapping studies. Some clients wish to conduct their own risk assessments, in which case CAR is able to provide comprehensive dossiers of wartime data for given sites or territories.

CAR’s expertise has a wide range of applications, including:

• Civil defence planning
• Urban planning and development control
• Property development
• Transport and communications development
• Contaminated land assessment

Wider Application of CAR Data

CAR’s expertise with archival records and specifically historic air photos and mapping has resulted in bespoke projects in the public and private sectors including contributions to major ecological, archaeological and historical studies. These projects have included research for countries throughout Europe, Africa and South America.

Client Base

CAR’s expertise has been developed over ten years working with an international client base in Italy, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Japan and the UK. Clients range from regional governments and city councils to civil defence authorities, and from geotechnical companies, to multinationals in the energy and transport infrastructure sectors.