Yet another armed conflict database
Armed conflict databases are collections of information about armed conflicts, including information about the parties involved, the duration of the conflict, and the location of the conflict. We can use these databases for a variety of purposes, including academic research, policy analysis, and conflict resolution.
There are several well-known armed conflict databases, including the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED)¹, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP)², and the Global Conflict Tracker³ from the Council on Foreign Relations. These databases differ in their scope, methods, and data sources, but they all aim to provide reliable and up-to-date information about armed conflicts around the world.
Armed conflict databases can be useful for identifying trends and patterns in armed conflicts, tracking the evolution of conflicts over time, and understanding the factors that contribute to the onset and resolution of armed conflicts. They monitor the impact of armed conflicts on civilians and assess the effectiveness of conflict resolution efforts.
Geospatial representation of events
Coordinates, such as latitude and longitude, are a common way to represent the location of an event on a map. However, there are several disadvantages to using coordinates as a geospatial representation:
Precision
Coordinates can be difficult to interpret accurately, especially if we save them with a high level of fake-precision. For example, it's hard to determine exactly where an event took place if we gave the coordinates to the hundredth or thousandth of a degree.
Complexity
Coordinates can be hard to understand and work with, especially for people who are not familiar with geospatial concepts. It's difficult to know what a particular set of coordinates represents or how to use them to locate a specific place on a map.
Ambiguity
Coordinates can be ambiguous, particularly if we save them in different formats or reference different coordinate systems. For example, it's hard to determine whether a set of coordinates is in degrees, radians, or some other unit.
One way to overcome these disadvantages is to use polygon feature representation, which involves defining the location of an event as a specific area on a map. We can do this using a variety of geospatial tools and technologies, such as GIS software or online mapping platforms.
Using polygon feature representation can be useful when saving an event that happened near a city or border. For example, if an event took place within a certain distance of a city, it's difficult to determine exactly where the event took place using coordinates alone. By defining the location as a polygon around the city, it is easier to see exactly where the event occurred and how it relates to the city or other nearby landmarks.
Data being hosted BigQuery
Google BigQuery is a cloud-based data warehousing and analytics platform that enables users to analyze large and complex datasets using SQL (Structured Query Language). It handles petabyte-scale datasets and allows users to run interactive queries and analyses on large datasets in real-time.
Google built BigQuery on top of their cloud infrastructure, which means it can process large amounts of data quickly and efficiently. It also integrates with other Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services, such as Google Cloud Storage and Google Cloud Data Fusion, making it easy to ingest, transform, and analyze data from a variety of sources.
One of the major benefits of BigQuery is its ability to handle large volumes of data without requiring users to set up and maintain their own infrastructure. This makes it an attractive option for organizations that need to analyze large datasets but do not have the resources or expertise to do so on their own.
Serverless executed Azure Functions
Azure Functions is a serverless compute-service that enables users to run code in response to specific events, such as an HTTP request, a message from a queue, or a change in a database. It is a fully managed service that abstracts away the underlying infrastructure, allowing users to focus on writing and deploying their code without having to worry about managing servers or other infrastructure.
Microsoft builds Azure Functions on top of their cloud platform and is scalable, reliable, and cost-effective. It supports a variety of programming languages, including C#, F#, JavaScript, and Python, and allows users to choose the development environment that best meets their needs.
One of the major benefits of Azure Functions is its ability to automatically scale up or down based on demand, which helps users optimize their costs and resources. It also integrates with other Azure services, such as Azure Storage, Azure Cosmos DB, and Azure Event Grid, making it easy to build event-driven applications and workflows.
Access using Rapid API
RapidAPI is a marketplace for APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that enables developers to discover, test, and connect to third-party APIs. It is a platform that allows API providers to share their APIs with developers and allows developers to easily find, test, and use APIs in their own applications.
RapidAPI provides a wide range of APIs across a variety of categories, including finance, travel, healthcare, and social media. It also offers a range of tools and resources to help developers get started with APIs, including code samples, documentation, and support.
One of the major benefits of RapidAPI is that it provides a single platform for developers to discover and use a wide range of APIs from different providers. This saves developers time and effort by eliminating the need to search for and integrate APIs from multiple sources. RapidAPI also provides a range of security and authentication features to help ensure that APIs are used securely and under their terms of use.
Web Maps and Dashboard using ArcGIS Platform
With an ArcGIS developer account, you have access to the underlying location services from ArcGIS Platform. Each developer account has a dedicated instance offering private and public content like web maps, feature layers and dashboards, instant apps.
We queried the armed conflict events of 24th February 2022 using our geoconflicts API and saved those into private hosted feature services using ArcGIS Platform. A dedicated feature service represents the conflict events as geodetic polygons with common properties of the armed conflict events. Two feature services host the aggregated spatial bins and the spatial clusters. The serverless backend of the geoconflicts API calculates these aggregations on-the-fly.
We created a public accessible armed conflicts web map and added public shared feature layer views referencing the armed conflict events, the spatial bins and the spatial clusters. The feature layers are scale dependent, so that you can easily gain spatial insights from high-level aggregation to dedicated areas of interests where these events occur.
The dashboard uses the current map extent filtering the armed conflict events shown in the left side-panel. Selecting an event item triggers the pan to map event action, and highlights the corresponding event polygon.
Summary
We used the platform-as-a-service offering BigQuery from Google hosting the spatial-enabled armed conflict events of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, Azure Functions from Microsoft accessing BigQuery and calculating spatial aggregations on-the-fly perfectly fitting into our current Azure DevOps pipeline, and ArcGIS Platform from Esri hosting fully fledged feature services, ready-to-use dashboards containing hosted web maps for the best user experience.
References:
[1] Armed Conflict and Event Data Project (ACLED)
The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) collects real-time data on the locations, dates, actors, fatalities, and types of all reported political violence and protest events around the world.
[2] Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP)
The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) is the world’s main provider of data on organized violence and the oldest ongoing data collection project for civil war, with a history of almost 40 years.
[3] Global Conflict Tracker
The Global Conflict Tracker is an interactive guide to ongoing conflicts around the world of concern to the United States with background information and resources.
[4] Geoconflicts API
Query armed conflict events worldwide and visualize them using spatial aggregations.
[5] Armed Conflicts Dashboard
Armed Conflicts Dashboard showing all armed conflicts of 24th February 2022.
[6] ArcGIS Platform
Bring the power of maps and location services to your applications.
