Global Drone Terrorism Database: Merged ACLED and GTD Incidents, 1994-2024

From 1994 to 2024, this dataset compiles drone-related terrorist incidents worldwide by merging records from ACLED and the Global Terrorism Database. It focuses on the tactical use of Unmanned Aerial Systems by non-state actors and includes Python-based cleaning and merging logic. The dataset was authored by Dora Edelmann and is available under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal trends in drone terrorism based on the 1994-2024 date range
• Map geographic patterns of drone incidents based on the location data
• Study the tactical applications of drones by non-state actors based on the described focus
• Compare and validate incident reporting between ACLED and GTD sources based on the unified schema

Strengths

• Integrates data from two established conflict databases, ACLED and GTD
• Covers a 30-year time span from 1994 to 2024
• Includes the provided Python code for data cleaning and merging
• Has a specific focus on drone usage by non-state actors

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Data may reflect geographic or reporting bias inherent to the source databases

Provenance

Source

Compiled from ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project) and the Global Terrorism Database (GTD).

Collection Method

Merged and cleaned using Python-based logic; full code is available on GitHub.

Time Range

1994 to 2024

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-29 18:13:22; freshness should be verified

Geography

Worldwide