In Iraq and Syria, Imagery of Nighttime Electricity Use Illuminates the Impacts of War
The outbreak of conflict in Syria in 2011, which quickly escalated to a full-blown civil war, has done tremendous damage to the country. One compelling way to visualize the devastation is using satellite night-light imagery. The image below represents electricity use in the Levant area of the Middle East by depicting the evolving intensity of night lights […]The outbreak of conflict in Syria in 2011, which quickly escalated to a full-blown civil war, has done tremendous damage to the country. One compelling way to visualize the devastation is using satellite night-light imagery.
The image below represents electricity use in the Levant area of the Middle East by depicting the evolving intensity of night lights between 2012 and 2016. As millions of refugees fled Syria and warfare destroyed the country's electricity network, the night-light intensity in Syria dropped precipitously between 2012 and 2016.
A similar dynamic can be observed in certain parts of Iraq. The areas of the country that were overrun by the Islamic State in 2014, namely Anbar province and certain parts of the north such as Mosul, witnessed a dramatic fall in night-light intensity between 2012 and 2016. The decline is the result of the coalition bombing campaign of the Islamic State strongholds in these areas, as well as the offensives to take back the territory captured by the Islamic State.
