Crisis mapping by Jen Ziemke about the Angolan Civil War has helped predict when combatants are likely to target civilians.

During her PhD research, Ziemke mapped thousands of spatial and temporal data points to draw out the patterns that led to her conclusions: combatants are more likely to attack civilians when they are losing.

Mapping data can be a powerful tool to visualize results, events, or stories in a way that allows the consumer to immediately understand what is happening on the ground. In Angola, a country that has been torn apart by a civil war that continued on and off between 1961 and 2002, there is plenty of data to work with. The conclusions reached by Ziemke have powerful implications for all conflicts that impact civilians. If we know when combatants are more likely to attack civilians, perhaps we will be better able to prevent such occurrences.

Thank you to Patrick Philip Meier for first publicizing this story on his blog iRevolution, where he has promoted many examples of crisis mapping, and elaborated a new taxonomy for the burgeoning field.