The scars of war: A programme for the identification of the environmental effects of Word War II bombings for the purposes of spatial management in the Koźle Basin, Poland

Abstract

Poland’s Koźle Basin contains numerous craters created from the explosions of World War II aerial bombs as well as craters left by unexploded ordnance. The state of the local environment has been severely affected. This situation presents an obstacle to spatial management of the land to this day. This research programme studied the distribution of postmilitary anthropogenic geohazards in the area. It was intended to help to indicate the appropriate courses of action, including in the field of spatial planning, in the areas affected by former bombing. Desk studies focused on photo-interpretive analysis of archival aerial photographs and took advantage of the potential of high-resolution shaded relief rasters created from digital terrain models derived from LiDAR scanning. Field studies used classic geomorphological methods. Studies conducted so far in the bombed areas indicate the necessity of carrying out systematic, anticipatory, accurate surveys of the land and soil surface with the use of geophysical methods. Currently, the traces identified in the field suggest that the amount of unexploded ordnance remaining in the ground is very large.

Anthropogenic Landforms Derived from LiDAR Data in the Woodlands near Kotlarnia (Koźle Basin, Poland)

“…As a result of the effective smoke screens laid over the plants, high drop heights and intense anti-aircraft fire, many of the 39,137 bombs dropped failed to hit their targets, exploding in other areas including forests. The craters preserved there, created by 500-pound demolition bombs, range from 10 to 15 metres in diameter and are often more than 2 m deep; 250-pound bombs resulted in 7–10 m craters, and there are also smaller craters from unexploded ordnance [ 55 , 56 , 57 ]. Before the sand mine started to operate in Kotlarnia, the area had been soft and waterlogged due to the fact that the substrate consisted of marginal silts, which were impermeable to water ( Figure 5 ).…”