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 climate change and geospatial, humanitarian, and environmental science. We use satellite imagery and geospatial data to examine relationships between forced displacement, climate vulnerability, and land cover/land use change 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 work has been published in major news outlets including The New York Times, Scientific American, the Financial Times, the Washington Post, BBC, the Guardian, Der Spiegel, Bloomberg News, and 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.

Recent News & Work


Our work on mapping damage across the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas War has been widely covered in news outlets around the world. 👉

Gaza Damage Mapping News Coverage

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

The post-conflict expansion of coca farming and illicit cattle ranching in Colombia