Examine environmental harm through 25 case studies sourced from CEOBS’ Ukraine incident database.
CEOBS has been remotely tracking and assessing environmentally-relevant incidents in Ukraine since February 2022. We share our data with relevant stakeholders, it informs our research and advocacy activities, and it is our hope that the dataset will also contribute to Ukraine’s green recovery. We’ve now used it to create an interactive map.
Ongoing research and analysis
Following the 24th February 2022, it quickly became clear that the scale, intensity and character of the conflict in Ukraine was generating incidents of environmental harm that posed risks to people and ecosystems, and which would impede Ukraine’s recovery if left unaddressed. The types of harm and volume of available open-source intelligence informed our development of a database framework that aims to capture the breadth and depth of environmentally-relevant incidents, with a systematic and detailed characterisation of the potential environmental harm. The data we continue to collect and analyse has a number of end uses, which include prioritising site assessments, and informing remedial activities and policy development. However, for reasons of operational security, the database is not accessible to the general public.
An interactive case study map
While material from the database has informed many of our research outputs on Ukraine, we have also wanted to share more information on individual cases that we have been examining. We are therefore grateful to UNEP and the government of Japan for funding the development of a new interactive map as part of their support for the work on the database. The database has also been made possible by support from the OSCE, UNDP and Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The map features 25 incidents that help illustrate some of the types of environmental damage that have been caused or exacerbated by the conflict. Each of the case studies features a timeline of key incidents, and satellite and social media data has been used to undertake remote assessments of the damage and the potential risks to the environment.
It is important to note that remote analyses have their limitations and that ground assessments will be needed at the sites to validate the extent of any potential risks identified. Moreover, although the risks are small, recent imagery and analysis could influence military decisions. For these reasons of operational security, we only publish information on this map with a delay, the cut-off point is currently the end of September 2023.
Explore the interactive map and learn more about our methodology.