Maps and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) serve a valuable role in humanitarian demining for the management of geospatial information that is critical to safe and efficient operations. Symbols are necessary for representing the many categories of landmine hazards and mine action processes in graphic form on maps and in GIS. It is critical that these map symbols not be ambiguous, confusing, or otherwise unclear to demining personnel or civilians. Poorly designed symbols may cause map misinterpretation which may pose severe consequences including serious injury or death. Thus the development of a standard, well-designed set of map symbols specifically for humanitarian demining operations is of paramount importance.

This report details the results, findings, and final recommendations of a study of cartographic symbols for humanitarian demining. The report is divided into four main sections. The Introduction and Background states the project objectives and identifies many benefits of standardized map symbols for humanitarian demining. The Symbol Inventory and Catalog section includes the results of research regarding landmine, minefield, and mine action symbols used by military and humanitarian demining organizations.

A critique of current IMSMA map symbols is presented in the Symbol Recommendations section as well as recommendations for improving these symbols based on research in the fields of cartography and human perception. A revised symbology structure for IMSMA and a new set of map symbols for humanitarian demining are proposed. Results from an evaluation of the proposed symbols at the IMSMA Summer Workshop held in Geneva, Switzerland in July 2004 are presented, as well as recommendations for implementing the map symbols in the next version of IMSMA. Suggestions for areas of future work following this study conclude the report in the Future Work section. Based on this report, symbology font files have been created for inclusion in IMSMA V4.