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.