Conflict Ecology is a geospatial research lab led by Jamon Van Den Hoek, Associate Professor of Geography at Oregon State University. 

The Conflict Ecology lab works at the intersection of land use/land cover, peace and conflict, humanitarian, and geospatial science. We use satellite imagery and geospatial data to examine relationships between forced displacement, climate change vulnerability, and landscape dynamics in conflict-affected regions around the world. These themes shape a graduate collaborative geospatial research course, The Geography of Survival, offered in Winter terms at Oregon State University.

Our maps and data have been published in major news outlets including The New York Times, the Washington Post, Al Jazeera, the Financial Times, the BBC, the Guardian, Der Spiegel, Bloomberg News, among others.

Our work has funded by the NASA Land-Cover and Land-Use Change (LCLUC) Program, the NASA Disasters Program, the NASA Group on Earth Observations-Human Planet Initiative, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), and the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration, among others.


Our research on mapping damage across the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas War has been widely covered by news outlets around the world 👉👇

Gaza Damage Mapping News Coverage
CNN Newsroom with Michael Holmes - Professor Jamon Van Den Hoek joins CNN's Michael Holmes to discuss Israel's siege on Gaza and the data he's collected through satellite imagery on damage to the area.mp4
BBC_News_Channel-2023-11-30_20-22-39.mp4

Recent News & Work

What Ukraine Has Lost During Russia's Invasion

Out-migration, agricultural abandonment, and community forest management: Drivers of afforestation in privately managed land in Nepal

‘Nowhere and no one is safe’: spatial analysis of damage to critical civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip

Power in Environmental Peacebuilding

Satellite imagery shows evidence of new graves after Tigray massacres

Indexing climatic and environmental exposure of refugee camps with a case study in East Africa