Purpose: Use QGIS to create a heatmap that visualizes the spatial distribution of terrorism incidents in southern Thailand for the year 2020, with the goal of identifying hotspots.
Skills Demonstrated: GIS analysis, spatial data visualization, and integration of geolocated data with conflict analysis.
latitude
: Geolocation of the incidents.longitude
: Geolocation of the incidents.nkill
: Number of people killed in the incidents.Simplify the dataset:
Clean the dataset:
Save the dataset as a CSV file:
Open QGIS and Import CSV:
Layer
> Add Layer
> Add Delimited Text Layer
.Coordinate Reference System (CRS) Setting:
Data Point Visualization:
latitude
and longitude
columns provide the geographic coordinates for each data point. These coordinates determine where each data point is placed on the map.Layers Panel
> Properties
> Symbology
> select appropriate symbol
Base Map Addition:
Browser Panel
> XYZ Tiles: OpenStreetMap
> double-click it > verify that OpenStreetMap
appears in the Layers Panel
Plugins
> Manage and Install Plugins…
> Search for “Density Analysis” > Click Install Plugin
> Close the dialog once installation is completeProcessing Toolbox
> Select Styled Heatmap (Kernel Density Estimation)
.csv
file)0.1
(for higher resolution)4.5
km (to define the influence area of each data point)Reds
(for easy visualization)Linear
Continuous
nkill
column
nkill
field represents the number of people who are killed in the terrorist attacks. It acts as a weight for each data point.nkill
values will contribute more to the heatmap's intensity, making those regions darker.Run
to generate the heatmapDescription of the heatmap:
| | Number of populations | Number of terrorism incidents | Number of death (nkill) | Death rate per 100,000 population | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Songkhla | 1,428,609 | 2 | 1 | 0.07 | | Yala | 538,602 | 4 | 2 | 0.37 | | Pattani | 726,035 | 19 | 10 | 1.38 | | Narathiwat | 804,429 | 14 | 5 | 0.62 |