Terror in Afghanistan

U.S. Army Geospatial Center

This map examines civilian casualties due to acts of terrorism in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2009. Its style was derived from newspaper and propaganda maps from the 1930s and early 1940s. The author was inspired to use ArcGIS to simulate these old styles in depicting a contemporary conflict after browsing old maps at the Library of Congress.

The use of the strong black and red, dramatic title, and bold graphics evoke the World War II battle maps that were common in publications of the time. Care was taken to avoid soft edges and gradient effects which were not used in early- to mid-twentieth century newspapers. The diverse terrain of Afghanistan is represented in a hand-drawn style by applying dots to contour lines that are easily created from digital elevation data in ArcGIS.

Courtesy of S.T. Benzek.

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