Yesterday, reports that Google Maps had stopped obscuring satellite imagery of sensitive Russian military facilities spread like wildfire across Twitter. Only there was no official announcement from Google saying they’d done so, and while Ukrainian Twitter was seriously running with it, I wanted to see some confirmation from the mapping side. In the event, an update to Ars Technica’s story says that Google hadn’t stopped blurring the imagery—the imagery hadn’t been blurred in the first place. “A Google spokesperson told Ars that the company hasn’t changed anything with regard to blurring out sensitive sites in Russia, so perhaps none of us were looking closely until now.”
Category: Conflicts
The Design Choices Behind Maps of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
In Geographical magazine, Doug Specht and Alexander Kent examine some of the design choices made by media organizations mapping the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Cartographic design choices over colour, layout, lettering and symbology, for example, all influence our attitudes and feelings towards the war in Ukraine. […] [B]y understanding how these choices (e.g., regarding the selection and classification of features as well as their colour and symbology) mask the nuances of reality, we can be better at reading the stories they are trying to tell.”
Relatedly, in a Twitter thread, Le Monde’s cartographic team explores the decisions behind one of their print maps (in French).
Previously: How Maps of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Can Mislead; Mapping the Russian Invasion of Ukraine: Roundup #3.
Mapping the Russian Invasion of Ukraine: Roundup #3
The Financial Times has a storymap exploring how Russian mistakes and unexpectedly stiff Ukrainian resistance changed the expected outcome of the war. [Maps Mania]
Bellingcat has launched a map showing civilian harm in Ukraine. “Included in the map are instances where civilian areas and infrastructure have been damaged or destroyed, where the presence of civilian injuries are visible and/or there is the presence of immobile civilian bodies. […] We intend this to be a living project that will continue to be updated as long as the conflict persists.”
In a Twitter thread, Levi Westerfeld explores how the New York Times graphics department changed its map symbology as the Russian invasion progressed.
In another Twitter thread, Nathan Ruser (see roundups passim) shares a variety of maps showing different ways of looking at the invasion, from momentum to front lines to territory held.
How Maps of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Can Mislead
Writing in Foreign Policy, Mateusz Fafinski looks at maps of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, their disconnect with facts on the ground, and their use in propaganda. “Numerous news outlets and analysts produce maps of the war in Ukraine. These maps tend to follow a similar pattern. Areas of Russian advances get colored in red, sometimes augmented with arrows signifying the direction of Russian movements. Those areas are variously described as ‘areas occupied’ or ‘areas taken.’ At face value, these maps tell a story of significant Russian progress and control. But reports from the ground tell a more nuanced story.”
For context, see previous posts: Mapping the Russian Invasion of Ukraine: A Roundup; Mapping the Russian Invasion of Ukraine: Roundup #2.
General Milley’s Map
General Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been carrying a map of Ukraine with him everywhere he goes, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reports in a piece that looks at U.S. intelligence gathering and work with its allies during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Milley’s map is a compendium of U.S intelligence about Russia’s pitiless assault on Ukraine. The paper version isn’t actually big or particularly fancy, just a foot-square chart showing the locations, numbers and likely assault paths of the vast Russian force battering Ukraine. But the map documents what Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his top aides believe might be the most comprehensive operational intelligence in the history of warfare. […]
Milley ordered aides to begin assembling the map in late October, when startling intelligence reports signaled that Russia was gathering an invasion army on Ukraine’s border. The Russian forces were no exercise; intercepted messages showed that Russia was actually planning an attack.
Of course we can’t get a look at Gen. Milley’s map. Classified.
Mapping the Russian Invasion of Ukraine: Roundup #2
Content warning: Some of these links contain disturbing images: I’ve marked them with a †.
More on the question of whether theatre maps accurately reflect the ground situation. Nathan Ruser’s maps have been used to argue that Russian forces are controlling roads rather than territory, but Ruser complains that his maps are being misinterpreted: they were never meant to show territorial control, just troop movements. See also this Twitter thread from Jennifer Cafarella, in which she explains the methodology and reasoning behind her team’s maps.
3D models of bombing damage.† Satellite imagery and 3D photogrammetric data are used to create 3D models of bombing damage in Ukraine. [Maps Mania]
A map of attacks on civilian targets† with photo and video documentation. [Nataliya Gumenyuk]
Where hot spots are literally hot spots. In a Twitter thread, Sotris Valkaniotis shows how military operations in Ukraine show up in Landsat spectral imagery: weapons fire turns up as hot spots showing “very high temperature in short-wave infrared band.”
A Ukrainian map of alleged Russian casualties† and where they were deployed from. [Michael Weiss]
A map of checkpoint traffic. More than two million Ukrainians have fled the Russian invasion. Overwhelmingly, they’re fleeing westward. This map shows how busy each border checkpoint is: Polish border crossings are extremely congested. [Kyiv Independent]
Meanwhile, Kenneth Field has been working on ways to map Ukraine’s refugees. Here’s his most recent iteration:
Update to my illustrative #Ukraine refugee map.
Adds more displaced grey dots to major populated areas.
Adds same stippled symbology to Russian incursion to indicate fuzziness of invasion (neither lines nor areas).#cartography #StandWithUkraine 💙💛 pic.twitter.com/QOyA8RaRi0
— Kenneth Field (@kennethfield) March 8, 2022
Ukraine’s population density. More than 41 million people live in Ukraine. This map from Airwars shows the population density per square kilometre. Which shows how many people in an area are affected by a particular military strike.
Apple says Crimea is Ukrainian. Mashable: “Apple’s Maps and Weather apps now mark Crimea as part of Ukraine when accessed outside of Russia. It appears the company has quietly updated its stance on the territorial dispute.” Apple had marked Crimea as Russian in 2019, which pissed Ukraine off at the time. [TechCrunch]
Finally, this striking bit of art:
By Ukrainian tattoo artist Eugene Anatsky pic.twitter.com/qVybeGYAuE
— Olga Tokariuk (@olgatokariuk) March 5, 2022
Mapping the Russian Invasion of Ukraine: A Roundup
Areas vs. lines. I’ve seen several reminders that the areas shown in some maps as being under control by Russian forces are not necessarily under Russian control. Since Russian columns have to stick to major roads and cannot, under current conditions, move cross-country, the argument is to visualize Russian incursions as lines rather than areas, as Nathan Ruser does in maps for his Daily Ukraine Brief (above).
The New York Times maps the Russian invasion. This regularly updated New York Times page includes their maps of the on-the-ground situation in Ukraine. Areas rather than lines though.
Where the trains are still running. Ukraine’s rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia has posted a map (above) showing which stations are still operating—at least at that particular moment. [Christopher Miller/ТРУХА]
Captured maps and other documents carried by Russian troops are being posted to Twitter.
Previously: Traffic Data Inadvertently Revealed the Start of the Russian Invasion; Traffic Data Inadvertently Revealed the Start of the Russian Invasion; Air-Raid Shelters in Kyiv; A Crowdsourced Map of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.
Traffic Data Inadvertently Revealed the Start of the Russian Invasion
AppleInsider looks at how online maps (Apple Maps, Google Maps), especially their traffic layer, inadvertently revealed Russian troop movements at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The sheer volume of mapping data now available at our fingertips means it was possible for civilians half a world away to see when Russian forces began moving. Specifically, that data pinpointed a traffic jam starting on the Russian side of the border, actively moving into Ukraine in the first few minutes of the Russian and Ukraine conflict.
Just as with any cartography, this information required interpreting. Google Maps did not specifically say that it was troop movements, nor was its satellite imagery up to the minute. During the process of researching this story, we’ve confirmed that Apple Maps presented similar inbound troop movement information—but it wasn’t setting out to do that either.
What these services did, though, was register all of the smartphone users whose driving was slowed or halted by unusual traffic conditions. Wherever the majority of the data came from, it was possible to determine what was happening when coupled with known details of Russian troop locations.
The News Media Maps the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
In a Twitter thread, Lisa Charlotte Muth provides a comprehensive list of maps and infographics about the Russian invasion of Ukraine produced by news organizations.
Air-Raid Shelters in Kyiv
The city of Kyiv has posted a map of public air-raid shelters in the Ukrainian capital, including basements and cellars, metro stations, underground parking, even underpasses. [Politico EU]
A Crowdsourced Map of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
The Russia-Ukraine Monitor Map “is a crowdsourced effort to map, document and verify information in order to provide reliable information for policymakers and journalists of the on-the-ground and online situation in and around Ukraine. […] The pins on this map represents open source material such as videos, photos and imagery that have been cross-referenced with satellite imagery to determine precise locations of military activity.” It’s produced by the Centre for Information Resilience. [Boing Boing]
Hal Jespersen’s Civil War Maps
Freelance cartographer Hal Jespersen has created more than 200 maps for various Wikipedia articles on battles in the U.S. Civil War. They are available for free download—both as PNGs and as source files—under a Creative Commons licence. [WMS]
Fuchida’s Map of Pearl Harbor
After Mitsuo Fuchida commanded the air attack on Pearl Harbor, he drew a map to report on the damage his planes inflicted on the U.S. ships. That map, held by the Library of Congress, is the subject of an interactive story map from the Library: “This is the story of how Fuchida made the map, the history surrounding it, and an opportunity for the reader to interactively explore the map’s contents.” [Maps Mania]
New Map Books: Early October 2020
New map books released in early October include:
The 27th edition of the Oxford Atlas of the World (Oxford University Press); this atlas is updated annually. This edition includes more satellite imagery, a new feature on plastics pollution, and an updated cities section. Amazon (Canada, UK), Bookshop
The 14th edition of the Times Concise Atlas of the World (Times Books). One step below the Comprehensive in the Times Atlas range, and a bit more than half the price. Available now in the U.K., next month in Canada, and next March in the United States. Amazon (Canada, UK), Bookshop
A History of the Second World War in 100 Maps by Jeremy Black (British Library) “selects 100 of the most revealing, extraordinary and significant maps to give a ground-breaking perspective on the Second World War. It follows the British Library’s enormously successful A History of America in 100 Maps, published in 2018.” Out tomorrow in the U.K.; the U.S. edition is out from the University of Chicago Press later this month. Amazon (Canada, UK), Bookshop
Philip Parker’s History of World Trade in Maps (Collins), in which “more than 70 maps give a visual representation of the history of World Commerce, accompanied by text which tells the extraordinary story of the merchants, adventurers, middle-men and monarchs who bought, sold, explored and fought in search of profit and power.” Also out now in the U.K. but later in North America. Amazon (Canada, UK), Bookshop
Finally, the paperback edition of Tom Harper’s Atlas: A World of Maps from the British Library, which I reviewed here in 2018, is out tomorrow from the British Library. Amazon (Canada, UK), Bookshop
Mapping Far-Right Vigilantism
Alexander Reid Ross of Portland State University has created an interactive map that tracks incidents of far-right extremist vigilantism in the United States. Laura Biss has the story at MapLab:
The map shows that certain regions seem to be hotspots for extremism, including Southern California, Oregon and Washington. Ross fears for what might be coming to Texas, which has seen pockets of violence at protests and is home to people whom Ross calls “experienced racists, armed to the teeth.” He views the concentration of incidents in the Pacific Northwest as “an inverted funhouse,” considering their historic parallel in the terror of the Civil Rights-era South, which has fewer incidents today.”
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