Explanation of gaearon/ukraine-timemap

This is an interactive map tool that documents and visualizes civilian harm incidents during the war in Ukraine. Instead of just reading a list of incidents, users can explore what happened, where it happened, and when it happened all on a single map with a timeline. The tool was created by Bellingcat, an investigative journalism organization, to make real-world events more transparent and searchable for journalists, researchers, and the public.

The tool works by combining three layers of information: a map showing where incidents occurred, a timeline showing when they happened, and filterable data about each incident. Users can zoom into a specific region, scroll through a particular date range, and click on individual incidents to learn more details. The incidents are grouped into clusters (bubbles on the map) so you don't get overwhelmed by too many dots at once—as you zoom in, the map breaks larger clusters into smaller ones. You can also filter by category or source to narrow down what you're looking at.

This would be useful for journalists investigating military actions, human rights organizations documenting violations, academic researchers studying conflict, or concerned citizens wanting to understand what's happening in specific areas. For example, a researcher might use it to find all incidents near a particular city in a given month, or a journalist might cross-reference incidents across different reported sources to verify a story.

The project started as a fork of an existing tool from Forensic Architecture, a research group that specializes in documenting events through digital investigation. The developers who want to set this up locally or contribute improvements can find setup instructions in the repository—it's built with Node.js and runs as a web application. The most straightforward way to launch it is to build the files and host them on a regular web server.