View Conflicts: software for visualising spatiotemporal data on armed conflicts

This paper reports on a software system designed to support visual exploration of datasets on armed conflicts. It is hoped by the author that the software will provide addition assistance for researchers who want to explore spatiotemporal datasets on armed conflicts, their extensions and possible relations with conflict generating.

The spatiotemporal dataset represents each conflict with a coordinate, a radius for its extension as well as begin and end year for when the conflict was active. Two basic exploration methods are available in the software: multiple linked windows (brushing) and animation. Ongoing work detailed in the paper incorporates visualisation of other datasets recognised as affecting the risk, duration, type and location of armed conflicts.

The author notes that datasets on armed conflicts as well as datasets on conflict generating factors, have both a temporal and spatial dimension. The author argues that it is important the visualisation tool takes into account both time and space components.