Significant infrastructure damage resulting from kinetic attacks in war is a clear consequence of hostilities. Typical impacts include building collapse and damage to load-bearing structures caused by missile and drone strikes. However, conventional visual assessment using digital cameras has limitations in detecting small-scale defects, including cracks in concrete and panel structures, material delamination and chipping, damaged joints, and other subtle changes.
This problem is particularly important for assessing the broader impact of military operations on civilians. Direct damage, combined with disruption of engineering networks, power outages, loss of heating during cold periods, exposure to moisture and precipitation, and limited maintenance opportunities, can accelerate building deterioration and adversely affect living conditions.
This paper offers a pilot methodology using spatial forensics to document how war can weaponize domestic spaces over time, investigating the combined effects of direct explosive impacts and indirect environmental stressors on residential buildings in Lviv, Ukraine. Focusing on Soviet-era "Khrushchevka" housing blocks affected by Russian attacks, the research combines terrestrial laser scanning and thermal imaging to document spatial deformations and anomalous heat-loss patterns.
To contextualize these observations, the study integrates air-raid alarm notifications, electricity outage records, and extreme weather conditions. Saaty’s Analytic Hierarchy Process is used to structure and weight these temporal indicators to assess how they compound the physical hardship of civilian domestic life during wartime. By integrating spatial, thermal, infrastructural, and temporal data, the study proposes a framework for assessing the cumulative environmental exposure to wartime impacts on residential infrastructure and civilian living conditions.
Błaszczyk, M., Ilyk, K., & Pachkovskyy, Y. (2025). Living in a Regime of Energy Shortages: Spotlights From Lviv During the War. Sociological Research Online, 30(1), 315-324. https://doi.org/10.1177/13607804241240
Clark, J. N. (2026). Exploring the environmental impacts of war through sound and listening: a study of the Russia-Ukraine war. Environmental Sociology, 12(3), 478–492. https://doi.org/10.1080/23251042.2025.2510416
Devine, K & van der Merwe, B. (2022). Lights over Ukraine: The energy war. Sky News. https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-how-much-the-lights-have-gone-out-in-kyiv-revealed-for-the-first-time-by-nasa-satellites-12773049
Dingemanse, M.I., Zhizhin, M. & Cerra, D. Conflict monitoring with VIIRS Nightfire: the war in Ukraine. Sci Rep 16, 7946 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-42172-0
Kirimtat, A., & Krejcar, O. (2018). A review of infrared thermography for the investigation of building envelopes: Advances and prospects. Energy and Buildings, 176, 390–406. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.07.052
Nardi, I., Lucchi, E., de Rubeis, T., & Ambrosini, D. (2018). Quantification of heat energy losses through the building envelope: A state-of-the-art analysis with critical and comprehensive review on infrared thermography. Building and Environment, 146, 190–205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.09.050
Pleshkanovska, A., & Biriuk, S. (2021). “Outdated housing stock” as an object of complex reconstruction programs and projects: Challenges for Ukraine. Journal of Urban and Regional Analysis, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.37043/jura.2021.13.2.4
Saaty, T. L. (1980). The analytic hierarchy process: Planning, priority setting, resource allocation. McGraw-Hill.
Starosielski, N. (2021). Media Hot and Cold. Duke University Press.
Yelizarova, O., Hozak, S., Stankevych, T., Parats, A., Lebedynets, N., & Karamzina, L. (2025). Influence of air raid sounds on the stress level of schoolchildren of Ukraine. Environment & Health, 115(2), 18-22. https://doi.org/10.32402/dovkil2025.02.018