Negotiating passages
GIS scholar’s use-inspired research poses realistic links between Gaza and the West Bank
By Jane Salerno Photo by Jane Salerno
Clark’s Master of Arts program in Geographic Information Sciences for Development and Environment (GISDE) asks students to focus on the application of GIS to issues of natural resource management for the sake of satisfying fundamental human needs. That focus is applied in the research of Palestinian scholar Safaa Karaki Aldwaik, whose work could literally alter the physical and political landscape connecting the strife-torn territories of the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
The political status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (WBGS) is one of the most violently disputed issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict, thus traveling between these unstable areas is often precarious. Aldwaik’s master’s thesis paper, “The Corridor: Using GIS to Propose Satisfactory Transportation Paths between the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” presents a GIS model for an acceptable link between the territories that lie on opposite borders of Israel.
In August 2007, Aldwaik’s paper received first place in the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association Student Paper Competition. (Another GISDE student, Tomas Vaclavik, placed second.) When Aldwaik presented her paper at the Association of American Geographers annual conference last spring, an editor of the Arab World Geographer invited her to submit it to the prestigious, peer-reviewed journal. Her paper was accepted and is slated to be published in its fall 2007 issue. It’s a remarkable honor for a master’s student’s solo-authored work to be published in a professional journal, according to her adviser, GISDE program coordinator Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.
Connecting territories “Connection between the West Bank and Gaza Strip is a critical factor to promote the Palestinian prospective State’s success,” Aldwaik says. “Such connection cannot be guaranteed without providing Palestinians with a transportation path or a ‘corridor’ through Israel that includes roads, a rail link and infrastructure. The Palestinian Ministry of Planning needs a flexible process modeling tool to propose a range of acceptable ground-based transportation paths between the two territories.”
Using Clark’s IDRISI image analysis software, interviews with developers, agencies and experts, as well as extensive data analysis, Aldwaik has created such a tool, which she intends to present to the Negotiations Support Unit in Ramallah (West Bank) and to the Ministry of Planning. “I hope this model can provide a first step on the negotiating table, helping both sides to see the many considerations to be taken into account, and make the concept of the linkage between the West Bank and Gaza Strip more realistic.”
Inspired by IDRISI Clark Labs, based within the Marsh Institute, produces the GIS software IDRISI developed by Clark geography professor J. Ronald Eastman. Many people in the mapping and geography spheres know of Abu Abd Allah Muhammed al-Idrisi (1100-1166 A.D.), whose geographic scholarship and mapping innovations are credited to have helped spark the age of exploration. Aldwaik said she learned of the IDRISI legacy as a young student, and she noted with a smile the connection to her current research.
“I can’t imagine my life without reading and studying,” Aldwaik says. She obtained a bachelor’s in architectural engineering and urban planning from Birzeit University in 2002.
Outstanding achievement in her undergraduate program led to a position as a full-time lecturer in the Palestine Polytechnic University. She later worked as an architect and site manager for a local engineering consultant office, and then for the Palestine Red Crescent Society, an organization providing health, social and other humanitarian services for Palestinian people throughout the Middle East. She came to Clark in 2006 with funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
New field of study The 28-year-old mother of two moved to join her husband, Ammar, a lawyer working to complete a Ph.D. at the Heller School at Brandeis University. Aldwaik said leaving her home in Ramallah by herself to study in the United States was never an option. Her parents agreed to accompany her and, with her family’s support, Aldwaik handled the myriad of challenges presented by “new kids, a new country, a new culture and a new field of study.”
While her family helped her to look after Samia, age 3, and 19-month-old Yasser, Aldwaik undertook her studies in GISDE, developing her GIS skills during a fall 2006 Digital Image Processing class. The course required land-cover classification using remotely sensed data. Her independent project was titled “Controlling Development: The Contradictory Effects of the Creation of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on the Land Use/Cover in Ramallah and East Jerusalem, 1987-1999.” The creation of the Palestinian National Authority in 1994 had profound effects on the land-cover change and land use in the territories (WBGS), Aldwaik explained.
“On one hand, the creation of the PNA triggered substantial international funding and investment in reconstructing the WBGS, which boosted the Palestinian economy and led to more urbanization and expansion in the Palestinian towns and cities,” she says. “While, on the other hand, the redeployment of the Israeli military forces in the WBGS led to the creation of new road networks or bypass roads connecting the Israeli settlements and avoiding the Palestinian cities.” Aldwaik examined the land change that followed the 1994 creation of the PNA in relation to how it stood in 1999, showing the contradictory effects.
Employing new skills Aldwaik returned to the West Bank in July, just after devastating fighting had begun between rival Hamas and Fatah political factions, escalating Israeli military actions and the closing of critical border crossings. At press time, she was waiting for official clearance to return to the Boston area. In the meantime, she intends to pursue a career that would utilize her new skills.
“I recently learned that the Palestinian National Authority is working on establishing a mapping unit that will be specialized in producing different kinds and levels of maps for the use of different government and local agencies,” she says. “I believe I would be a strong candidate to work for this unit.” She will also look into working on mapping with private companies.
Another potential opportunity, she says, is to work with a development agency or a nongovernmental organization that deals with urban planning and preserving cultural heritage. According to Aldwaik, maps and GIS will be very instrumental in long-term urban planning and for other planning purposes in a developing country like Palestine.
Aldwaik is a passionate scholar, who expects to combine the expertise gained at Clark and her architectural skills to improve the quality of life and preserve the cultural heritage of Palestine. Maps and borders change, she says, but “the land remains. People remain.”
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