Canadian Society of Forensic Science Journal

ISSN: 0008-5030 (Print) 2332-1660 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tcsf20

Remote Sensing as a Tool for the Detection of

Clandestine Mass Graves

M. Kalacska & L.S. Bell

To cite this article: M. Kalacska & L.S. Bell (2006) Remote Sensing as a Tool for the Detection
of Clandestine Mass Graves, Canadian Society of Forensic Science Journal, 39:1, 1-13, DOI:
10.1080/00085030.2006.10757132

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00085030.2006.10757132

Published online: 22 Nov 2013.

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 Can. Soc. Forensic Sci. J. Vol. 39. No 1 (2006) pp. 1–13

ARTICLES

REMOTE SENSING AS A TOOL FOR THE DETECTION OF

CLANDESTINE MASS GRAVES

M. KALACSKA1,2 AND L.S. BELL1,2

ABSTRACT
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Mass graves in both an international and domestic setting often present a difficult,
time-consuming and complicated detection problem. Historically, witness testimo-
ny has been relied upon to determine location. Other detection methods such as
geophysical resistivity, magnetometry and ground penetrating radar may be, and
have been, employed for the detection of graves with some success. However,
these methods require that the grave locale is known fairly precisely and that per-
sonnel can physically walk the grave site to undertake data collection. Remote
sensing (i.e. airborne and satellite imagery) is a detection tool that can be used to
search larger geographical areas without placing investigative personnel at risk.
Hyperspectral imagery acquired from aircraft or satellite provides over a hundred
layers (bands) of data that can be selectively examined and analyzed to detect sub-
tle changes in the reflectance spectra of the surface. Work presented here indicates,
from an ongoing long-term experimental mass grave and an actual mass grave site,
that remote sensing is a powerful detection tool, one which has the capacity to dis-
criminate a mass grave from its surroundings in real-time or in certain cases even
retrospectively.

RÉSUMÉ
Dans un cadre international et domestique, les tombes clandestines présentent
souvent un problème de détection difficile, compliqué et qui consomme du temps.
Historiquement, l’emplacement a été déterminé par l’entremise de témoins. Des
méthodes de détection géophysiques tel que les mesures magnétiques et le géo-
radar ont été employées pour la détection de tombes avec certains succès.
Cependant, ces méthodes exigent que le site d’enfouissement soit bien localisé et
accessible au personnel pour l’acquisition de données. La télédétection (e.g. à par-
tir d’un avion ou par satellite) est un outil de détection qui peut être utilisé pour
examiner de vastes régions d’une façon sécuritaire pour le personnel d’investiga-
tion. Les images hyperspectrales acquises à partir d’un avion ou par un satellite
fournissent plus de cent couches (bandes) de données qui peuvent être examinées
sélectivement et analysées pour détecter de faibles changements des spectres de
réflexion de la surface. Nous présentons des résultats de travaux en cours à partir
d’une tombe clandestine expérimentale et d’une tombe réelle afin de démontrer que
la télédétection offre la possibilité de différencier en temps réel une tombe de ses
environs ou dans certains cas même rétrospectivement.

1. Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby BC, Canada V5A 1S6. E-mail:
mkalacsk@sfu.ca; lynneb@sfu.ca
2. Titan Analysis Ltd., Vancouver BC, Canada V5K 5J8

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 INTRODUCTION
Remote sensing is a powerful tool for the protection of civilians. For the detection of
mass graves specifically, airborne and satellite hyperspectral imagery could greatly
increase chances for forward detection, monitoring of their production, and in certain cases
even retrospective assessment. It also has the potential to objectively assess claims or
denials of the existence of mass graves without placing investigative personnel at risk. In
order to organize a recovery team, graves should be positively located and subsequently,
remains may be exhumed and potentially identified for the purposes of prosecution and the
return of the remains to the victims’ families.
The sizes of mass graves created around the world vary greatly from small ones con-
taining two or more individuals, to larger discrete graves containing ten or more victims,
as in Guatemala, to large graves containing hundreds of individuals as in Iraq, Bosnia and
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Rwanda (1–4). The spatial pattern of graves, and the number of victims per grave, vary
widely between countries, and even regions within a country, and may be a reflection of
the confidence of the perpetrators. It is important to note that graves are not created only
by perpetrators. For example, survivors may in some cases recover and bury the bodies of
victims (5). Regardless of whether the graves are created by the perpetrators or the sur-
vivors, similar difficulties exist in their location and the recovery of the remains.
Furthermore, in some cases the grave (crime scene) is deliberately contaminated (e.g. as
seen in Bosnia) or damaged in order to make its discovery more difficult. In such cases,
retrospective remote sensing analysis may help to confirm or contradict witness or perpe-
trator testimony.
Detection methods which have been applied to defining mass graves and other subsur-
face anomalies broadly include geophysical resistivity and magnetometry. Geophysical
resistivity makes use of the conductance of an electrical current through different soils,
mediated largely by the presence or relative absence of water. Soil which has been dis-
turbed by digging and refilling, for whatever purpose, may reveal itself as an electrical
anomaly relative to the surrounding soils (6). Inclusion of metal objects such as iron may
complicate mapping such anomalies. Magnetometry makes use of the localized magnetic
field produced by collective magnetic variance across soil substructures (6). Ground pen-
etrating radar has been used similarly and detects interface changes in soils or anthro-
pogenic structures (7). All these methods have been extensively tested and applied to
archaeological detection problems. What is common to all these methodologies is the need
to have approximate knowledge of the anomaly’s location, in this instance a mass grave,
as measurements must be taken point by point across the grave itself, where extent, even
depth, may be defined and locally mapped. This is both the strength and the weakness of
this form of detection, since it requires personnel to be in what could often be a high risk
environment. Remote sensing offers a clear advantage for detection, since its view is
remote and may be used either in real time or retrospectively.
Optical remote sensing is in large part based on the interaction of light with material.
When incident radiation from the sun interacts with materials on the surface of the Earth,
based on the wavelength, light is transmitted, reflected or absorbed (8). Reflectance is the
ratio of the light incident on a surface to the light reflected from the surface (9). It can be
measured in-situ with a spectrometer which is generally composed of one or more detec-
tors that are sensitive to different areas of the electromagnetic spectrum (i.e. visible (400-
700 nm), near infrared (~ 700-1300 nm), shortwave infrared (~ 1300-2500 nm)). The
reflectance of the sample being measured is calculated by taking the ratio of the sample’s
reflectance to that of a reference with a known reflectance (8). In-situ measurements taken

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Figure 1. Representation of the spectral data within a multispectral image (a) and a hyperspec-
tral image (b). Differences in greyscale along the direction of the arrow represent dif-
ferences in pixel values in each of the 119 bands in the hyperspectral image and the
and 6 bands in the multispectral image (each band is represented by one layer).

with a spectrometer are generally hyperspectral data (i.e. up to hundreds of discrete wave-
lengths measured or imaged simultaneously), whereas imagery (satellite or airborne) is
either multi- or hyperspectral (Figure 1). The reflectance properties of green vegetation are
generally well-known (10). At the leaf level, in the visible portion of the spectrum,
reflectance is dominated by the absorption properties of pigments such as chlorophyll. In
the near infrared, features seen in the reflectance spectrum are primarily controlled by the
leaf internal structure, and in the shortwave infrared by water content and organic com-
pounds such as lignin, starch, cellulose and protein (Figure 2) (10). Bound and unbound
water has characteristic absorption features at 1400 nm and 1900 nm and smaller features
at 970 nm, 1200 nm and 1770 nm (8). At the canopy level, other factors such as canopy

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Figure 2. Spectral signature of vegetation from a hyperspectral sensor (a) and a mulispectral
sensor (b).

architecture, shading, gaps and leaf area index, among others, are also important factors
affecting spectral signatures. The spectral signature of soil on the other hand is largely due
to its physical and chemical properties, mainly influenced by its constituents such as inor-
ganic solids, organic matter, air and water (8). In the visible part of the spectrum and in
the near infrared up to 1000 nm, the electronic transitions related to iron are one of the
main factors influencing reflectance (8). Mineral composition produces diagnostic absorp-
tion features in the shortwave infrared. Organic matter also influences the spectra by
reducing the overall reflectivity. Soils with high organic content, such as over 20%, will
appear to be less reflective in the 400 – 2500 nm range, whereas soils with very little
organic components will have an increased reflectance and prominent absorption features
(8). An increase in water content will also decrease the overall reflectance and prominence
of absorption features of the soil similarly to an increase in particle size. Remote sensing
has not been applied as a scientific tool for the location or monitoring of clandestine

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 graves. Satellite imagery and aerial photography have been utilized purely in a spatial con-
text as one would analyze a photograph (11). The spectral domain and wealth of informa-
tion found within Figure 1b has not been exploited for this purpose.
Two case studies are provided for discussion and illustration of the potential application
of remote sensing data to the problem of detection of mass graves. One is based on a long-
term experimental study based in Costa Rica and the other on an actual mass grave site
located in Guatemala.

CASE STUDY EXAMPLE 1 – EXPERIMENTAL CLANDESTINE GRAVES

The first case we present is a long-term experiment being conducted in Costa Rica using
in-situ spectrometry and airborne hyperspectral imagery.
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Study Area and Methods

The study area is located in Northwest Guanacaste, Costa Rica at an elevation of 300 –
400 m. From an ecological perspective following the Holdridge life zone system, the area
is located in a Transitional Tropical Moist Forest. This ecosystem is characterized by 2000
–4000 mm of precipitation per year, an elevation ≤ 1000 m, a biotemperature > 17 ºC and
a potential evapotranspiration ratio of 0.5 – 1.0 (12).
The experiment is located in an abandoned pasture covered by a thick grass layer pre-
dominantly of Hyparrhenia rufa (Bergius) and Paspalum conjugatum (Nees). Two 5 × 5
× 1.5 m , two 1.5 × 2.5 × 1 m and two 1.5 × 2.5 × 2 m depressions were excavated during
the last week of February 2005 with a motorized backhoe attached to a Caterpillar tractor
(Figure 3a). In the first large depression, the carcasses of eight free range antibiotic-free
juvenile cattle (total weight 340 – 363 kg) purchased from a local slaughterhouse were
placed in two rows of four (Figure 3b). Within two hours the backfill was subsequently
replaced with the same backhoe. The backfill was also replaced in the second large depres-
sion that did not contain any carcasses, as a control treatment. In two of the smaller depres-
sions (one shallow and one deep) a single carcass (approximate weight 64 kg each) was
placed, and the backfill replaced. Two weeks later, single carcasses were placed in the
final two depressions and backfilled. The cattle had been killed by a combination of blunt
force trauma to the head from a mallet and a bullet to the back of the head by an experi-
enced cattle man.

Collection of in-situ spectra

The spectral reflectance of the graves and the control were subsequently measured with
an ASD FieldspecFR spectrometer (Analytical Spectral Devices, Boulder CO). The spec-
tral range for this spectrometer is 350 – 2500 nm with a resolution of 3 nm in the 350 –
1000 nm range and 10 nm in the 1000 – 2500 nm range. The measurements were repeated
with the same instrument during the last week of March 2005. In July 2005 (five months fol-
lowing burial), spectra were collected with an ASD Fieldspec handheld spectrometer
(Analytical Spectral Devices, Boulder CO). The ASD Handheld spectrometer has a range of
325 – 1075 nm. Its resolution at full width half maximum is 3.5 nm with a sampling interval
of 1.5 nm. During all three measurement episodes, reflectance was collected in a grid
sam/pling scheme resulting in 50 spectra being collected for the large (mass) grave and con-
trol, and 30 spectra being collected for each single burial. The field of view for both instru-
ments was approximately 4 cm in diameter based on the distance of the foreoptic from the
ground.

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Figure 3. Experimental set-up in Costa Rica (a) preparation (b) burial (c) WB57 aircraft used
in the collection of the airborne data during the CARTA 2005 mission (d) surface of
mass grave one month following burial (e) surface of mass grave five months after
burial (f) surface of one of the single graves five months following burial (g) surface
of control five months after burial.

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 Airborne Imagery
During the final week of March as part of the CARTA 2005 mission, airborne imagery was
collected for the field site with the MASTER (Airborne Sensor Facility, NASA Ames
Research Centre/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/USGS National Center for Earth
Resources Observation and Science ) and Hymap (Hyvista Corporation, North Ryde NSW
Australia) sensors aboard a WB57 aircraft (Figure 3c). CARTA 2005 was a collaborative air-
borne mission between the Costa Rican Center for High Technology (CENAT – Centro
Nacional de Alta Tecnología) and NASA where the entire country was imaged with the afore-
mentioned sensors as well as high-resolution aerial photography. The MASTER sensor is an
airborne simulation of the MODIS/ASTER sensors (satellite). It is composed of 50 bands in
the 0.4 – 13 µm range. Hymap on the other hand is a hyperspectral sensor from the Hyvista
Corporation. It is composed of 126 bands in the 0.45 - 2.5 µm range. The spatial resolution
for both images is approximately 3 – 4 m. In this paper we focus solely on the in-situ and
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MASTER data.

Results – In-situ spectra

The in-situ spectral measurements from one month following burial for the mass grave,
the control and one of the single burials are shown in Figure 4 a-c. All three have the gen-
eral shape of soil reflectance because in the one month following burial there has been no
vegetation regeneration. Figure 3d illustrates the surface of the mass grave during the last
week of March. In this tropical moist forest environment, February to April are the driest
months of the year and, therefore, it was expected that vegetation regeneration during this
time period would be minimal. In a detailed analysis of the mass grave and control it has
been found (13) that the spectra can be separated with near perfection using a combination
of feature selection and pattern classification techniques. This would tend to indicate that
even though visually the grave and the control appear to be similar disturbances, there are
spectral differences.
Five months following burial (Figure 3e-g and Figure 4d-f), contrary to past anecdotal
evidence, as shown earlier (13), vegetation regeneration occurred only on the control site
with only minimal vegetation on the mass grave. Here we add that a similar phenomenon
occurred with all four of the single burials where there was a lack of significant vegetation
re-growth in comparison to the control and the surroundings. Figure 4d (control site) illus-
trates the majority of the spectra beginning to assume the general features of the spectral
signature of vegetation whereas over the mass grave (Figure 4e), the signature is predom-
inantly that of soil. Similarly for the single burial (Figure 4f), the majority of the spectra
are that of soil with only a few assuming the shape of a vegetation spectral signature. It
has been suggested (13) that the lack of vegetation regeneration over the mass grave was
due to an initial toxicity of the soil following decomposition. Several of the volatile organ-
ic compounds produced through decomposition shown to occur in relatively high levels
(e.g. > 0.5 nmol/L) (14) may be toxic to the vegetation and soil microbes in concentrations
that may occur following the decomposition of 340 – 363 kg of body weight, thus imped-
ing regeneration. Even with less mass decomposing (~64 kg) as with the single burials, the
vegetation was impeded, though not to the degree of the mass grave.

Results – MASTER imagery

By making use of the spectral information in the MASTER imagery, the mass grave and
single burials have been highlighted in Figure 5a. When the reflectance from pixels repre-
senting the mass grave, control and background pasture are plotted in n-dimensional space
using only the visible area of the spectrum, there is no apparent difference between the

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Figure 4. (a) In-situ spectra of the control site taken one month following burial, (b) In-situ
spectra of mass grave taken one month following burial, (c) In-situ spectra of one of
the single graves one month following burial, (d) In-situ spectra of control site five
months following burial, (e) In-situ spectra of mass grave five months following bur-
ial, (f) In-situ spectra of one of the single graves five months followiing burial. Inset
for each panel depicts the mean spectrum.
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Figure 5. (a) Airborne MASTER imagery (approx. 4m spatial resolution) of the experimental
setup in Costa Rica. Location of single and mass graves indicated by the arrows; (b)
aerial photograph of the study area.

control and the mass grave. However, with a similar plot when specific bands from the
near infrared and shortwave infrared are used in addition to the visible, the pixels repre-
senting the mass grave are separate from the control. Without the inclusion of the spectral
domain into the analysis, the differentiation between the control and the mass grave one

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Figure 6. Satellite image (ASTER) acquired April 9, 2002 (15 m spatial resolution) of one of
the larger mass graves (Finca La Estrella Polar) being exhumed in Guatemala.

month following burial is not possible because of their similarity as seen on the aerial pho-
tograph of the site (Figure 5b).

CASE STUDY EXAMPLE 2 – SATELLITE IMAGE OF A MASS GRAVE IN

GUATEMALA
The Guatemalan ‘conflict’ claimed over 150,000 - 200,000 civilian lives, with over
400 villages destroyed and 40,000 people disappeared (15). This estimate is lower than
some that put the displaced at 1.5 million people and 626 villages destroyed (16). The
perpetrators of what was government-driven violence connect the military to many of
these civilian massacres via witness testimony (15). The scale and nature of this violence
led to the creation of mass graves, some in the forested areas and some in wells, which
are by their very nature clandestine. The number of victims buried and their sex and age
varied for each grave (5). During this time, not all clandestine graves were produced by
the perpetrators. Some were made by survivors or survivors’ families, recovering and
burying the people who were killed, or who died from months to years of starvation hid-
ing from the army in the highlands (16). Detection of these graves, even where witness
testimony exists, is often difficult and arduous in this tropical environment. Whilst
remote sensing offers no panacea for detection, it has the potential to detect grave sites
and aid in this difficult area of investigation, where other methodologies are impracti-
cal. It also offers the potential for retrospective analysis.
One of the larger mass graves recorded in Guatemala is in the Department of El Quiché
in an area called Finca La Estrella Polar illustrated in Figure 6. This ASTER satellite
image was acquired on April 9, 2002 at a spatial resolution of 15 m in the visible bands
and 30 m in the shortwave infrared. The crosshairs in the inset indicate the approximate
location of the grave. There is some uncertainty regarding the exact date that the massacre

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 occurred. For example, based on the CEH (UN Truth Commission) report, the massacre
occurred March 23, 1982. Based on the unofficial Guatemalan truth commission, the mas-
sacre was alleged to have occurred on March 24, 1982 and based on the monument at the
site, the correct date is March 22, 1982 (5). Nevertheless, approximately 96 people are
estimated to have been buried in this location. The remains from Finca La Estrella Polar
exhumed thus far were found to be waterlogged (5). The length of time (20 years) since
the burial to when the imagery was acquired complicates the analysis in comparison to the
first example. The three bands covering the visible and near infrared (15 m spatial resolu-
tion) and six bands in the shortwave infrared (30 m spatial resolution) did not provide the
spectral resolution necessary to reliably discriminate the grave from the surroundings.
Analyses of the region identifying the uniqueness of the spectral signatures of the pixels
highlighted several pixels around the area demarcated by the crosshairs in Figure 6, how-
ever, similar pixels were also highlighted in the surrounding area thus making the results
inconclusive. This example shows the complications that can be found when attempting to
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use multispectral imagery for locating targets which may have very subtle spectral differ-
ences from the surrounding pixels. We strongly recommend the use of hyperspectral data
or imagery with at least several dozen narrow spectral bands in order to apply signal process-
ing techniques to highlight the subtle variances in the spectra.

DISCUSSION
The use of remote sensing including the spectral domain to locate clandestine graves is a
new application in the scientific literature. Currently, there is a general lack of understand-
ing of the effect of the products of decomposition on the spectral response of the surface. The
preliminary results presented here do indicate, however, that with the acquisition of the
appropriate data there is a chance that remote sensing could become an important tool for
locating heretofore unknown graves. Nevertheless the widespread accessibility to imagery
and processing software brings with it certain caveats that must be understood by forensic
professionals making use of such data. As illustrated (17), such complex tools have the risk
of being inadvertently misused or used without an understanding of their limitations thus
resulting in overly optimistic results or disappointment in the deliverables. The key issues
that must be taken into consideration by any analyst contemplating the use of such data is an
understanding of the reflective and absorptive properties of the surface as well as the target
in addition to a consideration of the environment in which the analysis is to be conducted.
Techniques developed for one broad environment type (e.g. sandy or alleviated desert) may
not be directly transferred to another (e.g. tropical broadleaf rain forest); this is also impor-
tant within an environment. The tropics for example, provide several different types of
ecosystems with unique challenges. In some cases remote sensing may not be the right tool.
A recent study (11) published images of suspected mass graves from Bosnia. These images,
however, are panchromatic, thus seen only in grayscale and the information derived from
them is in large part spatial. We illustrate here through the two examples that the spectral
information, especially when hyperspectral data is available, adds more dimension to the
analysis and provides information that is not possible from multispectral or panchromatic
imagery. Further research and development of this powerful tool is required, and preliminary
work presented here demonstrates its potential usefulness as a tool for justice.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are grateful to Jaime Viquez, Patricia Murillo, Denis Ortiz, Felipe Mungía and
Guillermo Espinoza at the Los Inocentes Lodge and Center for Conservation for their sup-
port and logistical assistance and thank Johan Montero, Luis Coronado and J. Pablo
Arroyo for their help in organization, data collection and set-up. We would also like to

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 thank Dr. Jorge Andres Diaz and Allan Campos at the Costa Rican Center for High
Technology (CENAT) and the CARTA 2005 mission for the imagery over our study site
in Costa Rica and Alan Robinson from the Fundacíon de Antropología Forense de
Guatemala for information regarding the exhumations at Finca La Estrella Polar. We thank
Brian Yamashita and two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions on an
earlier version of the manuscript.

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