107 Humanitarian Assistance A geographically dispersed team is using a GIS to detail the impacts and the ongoing dangers. “What we do is critical to reconstruction and resettlement post-conflict, because you cannot just deal with the damage straight away,” said Luan Jaupi, head of information and communications technology at The HALO Trust. “We enable other humanitarian organizations and national authorities to safely conduct their activities by informing them where it’s safe to go and making places safe by clearing the explosives that are littered around.” Accessing Open-Source Information Unlike past conflicts where the aggressor had the element of surprise, social media and commercial satellite imagery have allowed the world to see and document Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. These so-called open-source intelligence sources differ from classified intelligence that can only be shared through diplomatic channels. “We’re collecting information from internet sources such as Twitter, Telegram, and Facebook,” said Jesse Hamlin, global GIS and database officer at The HALO Trust. “We’re finding lots of tanks and armored personnel carriers that have been destroyed, and they’re potentially booby-trapped with land mines around them. We’re also seeing mines being littered across a road and vehicles just driving past them, because there’s a panic to get out.” HALO’s explosive ordnance experts review a variety of datasets flowing into its database from social media and news outlets, verify whether the data is relevant to the mine action sector, identify the model of the munitions if possible, and then place the dangers on a smart map to be shared with others. “We’re finding lots of bridges that have been blown up by both sides, which means you may have been able to cross that bridge at one point, either to leave Ukraine or to come back in after the conflict is finished, but now you physically can’t cross the bridge until it is repaired,” Hamlin said. “This will impact the delivery of aid and the return of the people to their communities.” Putting Evidence on the Map The HALO team has worked to streamline the steps of geolocating an event on social media and speed the flow of information. Experts can now go through a stream of evidence and filter out just the events they feel need to be investigated, rather than manually searching the internet for social media and news articles. “Looking at the map, the areas in red show the line of contact, where Russians are pushing forward and getting pushed back on a daily basis,” Hamlin said. “The dots show events we pulled from social media that are color coded A dynamic web map captures updates of conflict and damage in Ukraine.
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