Kind: captions
Language: en
finding out what's happening in Sudan's
conflict stricken areas is
difficult even more so when there's a
lack of internet connectivity fear of
attacks and Waring
narratives in this video we're going to
look at how satellite imagery can be
used to get an indication of what is
happening in some of the most War
affected areas in Sudan since April
2023 the main focus we're going to look
at is finding sedan's destroyed
towns hi everyone I'm really honored to
share this session with you today uh
sadan has been a place that's been close
to my heart for several years now but
before we start just a couple of quick
things first please take care of your
mental health especially when working on
content like this as some of the objects
can be very traumatic at times second
please head over to my YouTube channel
and check out some of the sessions where
we go a little bit deeper into some of
the tools and techniques that we cover
in this session today so that you can
learn a little bit more about using
things like Google Earth or searching
for Content online and that way it helps
you connect the digital dots a little
bit better so you can answer questions
like where did it happen when did it
happen and what happened a little bit
easier
[Music]
well Monday marks one year since the
eruption of the Civil War in Sudan
fighting broke out in the morning
gunfire Was Heard across in Sudan more
people have been displaced filmed by
those who bragged about
it sadan has been embroiled in Conflict
for decades despite numerous pauses a
agreements and calm periods violence has
persisted leading to the destruction of
entire towns communities and lives today
we're going to use Google Earth to see
the extent of this damage from a
satellite
perspective we're going to start by
opening Google Earth Pro that's the
desktop version you can find a link to
it in the description below I'm going to
walk you through how to access
historical data so that you can compare
satellite imagery from different Windows
of time this is a very powerful way to
visually document change over time now
let's zoom in on a specific town in
sadan Star 4 region that has reportedly
suffered a number of Human Rights abuses
and wide levels of Destruction since the
fighting increased in April 15 20123
we're going to focus on the town of
elgina which in 2022 reportedly had a
population of more than 500,000 people
many of which are internally displaced
people due to conflict in the region we
can see a very clear satellite image and
if we wanted to find the date of the
image we can check out the status at the
bottom if you don't have that status you
can click on view in the top of your
Google Earth browser and click status
bar to bring that up we also have the
historical slider at the top and that
gives an indication of the date that we
might be looking at being April 2023
however I have personally found that the
date range the slider isn't necessarily
as reliable as what the one that would
be in the status bar down the bottom you
can see the status bar says April 19
2023 the date bar at the top says April
2023 if we want to check the source of
the image first of all we can see it's
from Airbus satellite imagery that's
copyrighted and displayed down here we
can see that if we pop this over the
trees here and you can see that Airbus
clearly labeled there Airbus is a
commercial satellite provider I don't
have an account with Airbus but what I
can do is use a thirdparty provider like
apoll mapping and have a look at the
available imagery from Airbus for April
2023 just to double check that that's
the exact image that we're looking at we
can use this website and use the search
image Hunter Now function which
basically allows you to purchase
commercial satellite imagery from
providers like planet maxar and Airbus
I'm going to search for the place El
Janina in sadan I can filter my results
looking for Airbus imagery and then
we'll go back to April
2023 and we can see that there are two
images from April 19 we can even load
those images you can see that there is
one over here that's probably not the
one we're looking at because we're
looking at the city in the middle of
elgina so we might be looking at this
one that's the image from April 19 and
if we click the information icon we can
see the exact time that that satellite
image was taken and the exact date and
that's our April 19 image so we can
verify that indeed it's not April 30 but
it's April 19 2023 is the current image
that we're looking at if you're looking
at this town on Google Earth during this
tutorial you'll probably see that the
town has suffered fighting attacks and
destruction in the past prior to April
20123 unfortunately the satellite
imagery of elgina paints a very sad
story The Town also has updated data for
2024 and looking at the west of the town
we can see imagery from March 17
2024 by looking at this most recent
satellite image we can see that the
level of Destruction is significant
buildings have vanished and the
landscape has dramatically
changed for a comparison of those two
satellite images we can see that the
satellite tiles have been clearly
distinguished between these two areas
here we can see where one side has been
updated and one side is still serving
the satellite image from March 2 or
April
2023 and this distinct line allows us to
see the difference where complete
Destruction has occurred within at least
the western side of that town by also
clicking on before and after we can see
the change over time and really be able
to visualize that difference between
what the imagery looked like in April 19
2023 and what it looks like in March 17
2024 to really see that level of
destruction of these area of this area
as you can imagine using ENT tools like
this doesn't only help us understand the
scale of the destruction but also brings
Global attention to the crises that
otherwise might go unnoticed the
significance of the Google Earth imagery
allows us to tell what has happened on
the ground or at the very least give us
strong indication of what has happened
in some areas where we look at numerous
buildings that have been built around
marketplaces or areas like this we can
scroll forward and see that they've been
completely demolished we can see some of
these buildings and even the walls
around them and the structures that hold
these tin roofs have just been
completely cleared from the satellite
imagery by zooming out we can see a
level of detail that is unmatched to any
video or photo from the ground gathering
this kind of information is extremely
important as internet connectivity has
been Limited in these regions due to a
number of factors such as power supply
fuel for generators phone tower
limitations and obviously that human
element of intimidation and fear of
repercussions should anyone upload
footage of who might be responsible for
this the absence of internet
connectivity has been detected by
monitoring groups such as net blocks for
example who have repeatedly identified
where major network connectivity drops
in Sudan since
2023 and specifically where major phone
providers as well have lost connectivity
despite these internet connectivity
issues sometimes footage does come out
and it has for example we've seen
footage come out during fighting such as
in the center of town where we see this
militia fighter cheering in front of the
video while Vehicles burn in the
background of of course it's important
to verify this information and
accurately geolocate footage like this
so that we know that it was actually
filmed in the town a quick indication by
pausing at frames like this and this
indicates that we are looking at a
substantial structure that might be in
blue with trees on the street we're also
on a paved Road and there aren't too
many paved roads in elgina especially
wide ones by looking around at certain
buildings we can see that some of them
have a blue roof but also we see that
there are trees on the road and we also
see that there's a kind of drain like
object right here and a driveway that
goes into this area and a building that
appears to be on a bit of an angle
towards the road by looking around at
some different areas we can almost
position ourselves to be looking at the
exact same area or the exact same angle
of view that might be seen in the
footage for example we can successfully
identify that this footage was filmed
from an angle similar to this we can see
the building that's on a lean we can see
the tree right here and then if we move
across we can see also this entry we can
even go back in time to see the front of
this building and what it might have
looked like in the past and we can see
clearly that little Street divider with
these two little dividers right here
notice the importance of the imagery
from April
2023 where we can see a large collection
of water or some kind of liquid on the
road right here and yet if we scroll
back in other satellite images we don't
see that as present right there that may
be an indication that this vehicle that
was on fire was also leaking something
on the road or might have been uh might
have had water sprayed on it after this
event we can also see some white on the
road that may be ching and that looks
like a very similar location to where
that vehicle was actually burning right
here while that was footage of during an
event filmed by Fighters we also have
footage filmed from the ground of the
aftermath of some fires that show the
damage from the ground to these kinds of
areas this area specifically is believed
to be a school area also in the center
of the town in this video we have a
number of features that aren't
necessarily indicative from the ground
but if we think about these features
from above then they make a clear object
that we can start looking for on a
satellite image for example the shape of
this building which looks like it has a
chunk out of the middle of it and then
other bits coming out towards here and
at this side of the building and then we
also have another building that faces it
as well over here and we have a
collection of water towers in between
these two buildings as well for the
purpose of time I already G located this
but we can have a look and see if this
matches this location where we can see
we have a building at the entrance of
this compound and we can see that we
have one right here we can also see
there are clear indications that there
are trees right here which indicates
that we have this tree this is the view
that we would be seeing right here with
that small chunk taken out again we can
scroll back in time and just try and get
a more clear image of these buildings as
well and see that one is a little bit in
or a little bit different if we follow
the rest of the footage as it goes
through we can see the left wall of the
compound over here which would be this
view the person moves slowly towards
this path up here and then we're met
with this view right here where we see
the small sets of water towers and then
this long building in the background
note that there is a tree that is in
front of the view in front of the water
towers that we have here so that's
always important to do to verify that
imagery and again that gives us a much
larger scale of the video that from down
in this area on the main road with the
militia fter the vehicles on fire this
area of a school Camp
compound uh with multiple uses that was
completely burnt down and then we
obviously have that satellite imagery
over here which just shows that high
level of destruction of course there are
so many other factors that we could
could look at as well while this footage
helps show the ONG ground aspect and the
Google Earth satellite imagery gives us
the view from above both can be
supplemented through the use of other
geospatial products available for free
to anyone with an internet connection
for example one that I've shown widely
on my YouTube tutorials is Sentinel Hub
which is not as clear as Google Earth
but shows the smoke from fires and burn
damage quite clearly quite regularly for
example if we go back in Sentinel Hub
imagery we can see some of the fires
actively burning in this region on
may4 you can also note that when I slide
through we can see multiple other dates
from may as well for example May 19 May
24 May 29 and others Sentinel Hub is
also extremely useful because we have
other filters to really draw down that
satellite imagery to identify for
example a burn area index or even
actually show some of the wires that are
burning and you can see some of those
smaller areas with quite bright orange
lights to identify what could be
potentially active fires again it's
important that when you use these
filters uh it's crucial to actually read
the descriptions to make sure you
accurately describe them as well but
that's an incredibly useful tool and
allows us to identify what happened in
between those Google Earth images
remembering that we only had satellite
imagery from March 2023 and April 2024
further to that we also have NASA firms
the fire information resource management
system which is also one that is
featured on my tutorials and that
provides indications of heat signatures
every single day anywhere on the earth
and the times that they are identified
as well so if we have a look over El
Janina we can click on our timeline and
we can have a look at anything from 1
day to 2 days to 10 right up to almost a
month or more than a month now I'm going
to select this I'm going to go back in
time and let's have a look back last
year at some of these things for example
where we saw those fires on Sentinel Hub
in
May so we'll go back to
2023 in May and we'll have a look at
that imagery there and you can see those
heat signatures as little red dots of
course each one of these should be
verified to see if they actually are
fires or other types of heat signatures
and when you double click on these you
can actually see the time that they are
identified as well and it also gives
that easy latitude and longitude that
you can follow up with satellite imagery
so this is a very useful tool to again
fill the gaps between the satellite
imagery that we only have through Google
Earth to find out exactly when some of
the fires were burning within this area
while this information is obviously
extremely helpful data to use especially
where there is a lack of footage and
Waring narratives it doesn't replace the
importance of the human stories that
come from those who have survived what
has happened in places like Elina but
rather it strengthens them and gives
weight to their testimony the impact on
civilians cannot be overstated and
millions have been displaced internally
or in neighboring countries with homes
destroyed and lives upended
documentation like this is crucial for
humanitarian agencies and international
bodies to respond
effectively and there's multiple ways
that this content can be visualized one
of the ways that this information can be
documented is for example the mapping
that the sedan witness project of the
center for information resilience is
doing by using very similar techniques
to what we've has shown in this YouTube
video to repetitively identify where
there have been villagers destroyed
through the use of
fire you can see this map which is
publicly available so it's free to use
for anyone with an internet connection
and you can scroll into certain areas
for example around El Janina or other
places and have a look at where some of
those fires have been burning you can
turn on the satellite imagery to zoom
into some of these locations and have a
look at where some of those heat
signatures have been picked up and where
it has been identified you and verified
using satellite imagery as well this
kind of work is completely crucial to
not only identifying when fires have
happened where villages have been
destroyed and how many but also showing
the complete scale of just how many
villages have been destroyed us using
fire since April
2023 this provides important statistics
and information to keep research active
on what's happening in Sudan but also to
give weight to testimony of those who
may have fled some of these Villages you
can find a link to this map in the
description below if you're interested
in learning more about how open-source
information can be used to document
things such as the destruction of
villages within San and communities and
lives I'll link to the resources some of
the organizations and some of the
individuals doing incredible work on
what's happening in sadan at the moment
in the description below it's important
to remember that as a community we use
these tools available to us to shine a
light on these issues open- Source
information provides us with a way to
Bear witness from afar and advocate for
those who need it most thank you so much
for watch watching and please share this
video to help spread that word drop your
questions or insights in the comment
section below I look forward to reading
them and until next time keep digging
into the data and keep looking for the
information that's so crucial to help
what's happening in the world
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