Researchers at George Mason University (GMU) have developed an interactive map of wartime violence in Ukraine. The web app called “Ukraine VIINA Dashboard” makes it easier to get a clearer picture of what is happening in the Ukraine war. The basis is a data system developed by a political scientist at the University of Michigan (Umich) , which collects relevant media reports from Ukraine and Russia and combines them with geodata.

Science activism

The app shows on a map which parts of Ukraine there are and how many reports of acts of violence. Circles with numbers are used for this purpose, with hotspots highlighted in red and previously relatively quiet regions marked in green. First, the map shows large regions, which break down into smaller areas when zoomed in and ultimately metadata about individual incidents, often with a link to the original source.

“We think journalists and citizens following the war will find this a useful way to access primary sources in a visually appealing way.”

GMU political scientist Robert McGrath

“I see this very much in the spirit of 'activist social science,'” says his colleague Eric McGlinchey. International audiences who are unfamiliar with the original Ukrainian and Russian sources receive clearly understandable information. “Equally important, our app has a good chance of flying under the radar of Russian state censors, giving audiences in Russia a clear picture of what’s really happening in Ukraine.”

Information cooperation

Ultimately, the GMU researchers only used the web app to prepare the data interactively.
The actual collection of media reports from the region and associated geodata goes back to Yuri Zhukov, professor of political science at UMich. He “VIINA” (Violent Incident Information from News Articles on the 2022 Russian Invasion of Ukraine) without any extensive graphical processing and worked with GMU researchers to make the interactive map possible.
According to McGlinchey, the scientists are now also working on a database and map of war crimes in Ukraine.

Also interesting: Russia: Hypersonic missile “Kinshal” fired

Source: press release


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