Point locations of brick kilns in Kabul, Afghanistan, derived from 1965, 2004, 2011, and 2018 satellite imagery

This dataset was created as part of the USGS Afghanistan Project investigating artisanal and small-scale mining activity. Clay mining for brick making purposes represents a small but important segment of the mineral extraction industry in Kabul, Afghanistan. Over the past several decades Kabul has grown from a relatively small city, with a 1970 population of less than 500,000 people, to a sprawling urban center with approximately 4.2 million people in 2020 (CIA 2020). Population growth has expanded the need for housing, commercial, and industrial buildings, and associated infrastructure. This has greatly increased demand for bricks, the primary construction material of the region. In this study, very high-resolution satellite imagery was interpreted to quantify and characterize the type, number, and location of brick kilns for 1965, 2004, 2011 and 2018. Geospatial analysis of these kiln locations together with geologic data and Landsat multispectral image analysis provides additional information about the mineral resources exploited for brick making.

本数据集系为开展手工与小规模采矿活动调研的美国地质调查局（United States Geological Survey, USGS）阿富汗项目所构建。用于制砖的黏土开采，是阿富汗喀布尔地区矿物开采产业中体量微小却至关重要的细分板块。在过去数十年间，喀布尔已从1970年人口不足50万的中等城市，发展为2020年人口约420万的蔓延式大都市（数据来源：美国中央情报局（Central Intelligence Agency, CIA）2020年报告）。人口增长带动了住房、商业及工业建筑与配套基础设施的需求扩容，极大推高了该地区核心建筑材料——砖块的市场需求。本研究通过对超高分辨率卫星影像进行解译，量化并刻画了1965年、2004年、2011年及2018年各年份砖窑的类型、数量与分布位置。对上述砖窑分布点位开展地理空间分析，并结合地质数据与陆地卫星（Landsat）多光谱影像分析，可进一步获取制砖所用矿产资源的相关信息。