The growth of access to the internet, wide availability of smart phones and increased public access to remote sensing data from hundreds of satellite systems have spurred a revolution in tracking the linkages between armed conflict and environmental damage. Over the last decade, a growing community of open-source investigative experts, environmentalists, academics and civil society groups have applied these methods to document war crimes, human rights violations and environmental degradation. These developments have created new opportunities for building accountability and transparency. The wealth of data on conflict-linked environmental damage has already been successfully leveraged to address acute and long-term environmental health risks and inform humanitarian response and post-conflict environmental assessments in Iraq, Syria and Ukraine. There are, however, larger questions on how to best make use of these data streams and information layers, and how to navigate the opportunities and limitations of these developments. This article will outline the new developments in this field and provide recommendations to ensure that data is used responsibly and effectively to strengthen accountability for environmental damages as a result of armed conflict.

互联网接入的增长、智能手机的广泛使用以及公众对数百个卫星系统遥感数据的访问不断增加，引发了追踪武装冲突与环境破坏之间联系的一场革命。在过去的十年中，越来越多的开源调查专家、环保人士、学者和民间社会团体应用这些方法来记录战争罪、侵犯人权行为和环境退化。这些发展为建立问责制和透明度创造了新的机会。有关与冲突有关的环境损害的大量数据已被成功利用来应对急性和长期的环境健康风险，并为伊拉克、叙利亚和乌克兰的人道主义应对和冲突后环境评估提供信息。然而，关于如何最好地利用这些数据流和信息层，以及如何驾驭这些发展的机遇和局限性，还存在更大的问题。本文将概述该领域的新发展，并提供建议，以确保负责任和有效地使用数据，以加强对武装冲突造成的环境损害的问责。