My understanding is that a major input to the cost of clearing unexploded ordinance is the depth to which one wants to clear. I read a RAND study a while back that did this analysis. Clearing just the very top bit of the soil, which I suppose will handle land mines that are more-or-less where they were originally placed, is much less expensive than having to clear explosives underground in an area to a depth of one meter.
My guess is that artillery is more-liable to wind up leaving UXO underground. I’d also guess that trenchlines are prone to the problem. And there were some landmines that were washed away after Russia blew the Kakhova Dam.
So in general, I’d guess that clearing areas of landmines is going to be easier than clearing areas that have seen major artillery battles.
My understanding is that a major input to the cost of clearing unexploded ordinance is the depth to which one wants to clear. I read a RAND study a while back that did this analysis. Clearing just the very top bit of the soil, which I suppose will handle land mines that are more-or-less where they were originally placed, is much less expensive than having to clear explosives underground in an area to a depth of one meter.
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_briefs/2005/RAND_RB9124.pdf
My guess is that artillery is more-liable to wind up leaving UXO underground. I’d also guess that trenchlines are prone to the problem. And there were some landmines that were washed away after Russia blew the Kakhova Dam.
So in general, I’d guess that clearing areas of landmines is going to be easier than clearing areas that have seen major artillery battles.