The Bedouin in the Negev

Data

The purpose of my original GIS project was to visualize data from the Bedouin Sector in the Negev Desert of Israel to better comprehend the complexity of land appropriation and population density in the area. Although I found general data sets to show demographics and land use, very little on the Bedouin was available. Thankfully, I was able to take information from various fact sheets and research papers and add that to existing population attribute tables to create a better picture of the recognized and unrecognized Bedouin villages, their population density and spatial location to each other. I also wanted a map showing the total population in the region.

For my spatial analysis, I mostly used shape files from Geocommons.com and www.diva-gis.org, but for more specific information, I was able to get access to the Israel Social Sciences Data Center at Hebrew University of Jerusalem (isdc.huji.ac.il).I was also granted access to a separate area called geobase.huji.as.il. Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics website (www.cbs.gov.il) had a plethora of information but unfortunately, most statistics for Arabs were combined so I was unable to parse out specific Bedouin data.Most of the information I used came from two maps. A map of planned forests in the Be’er Sheva Region and the Map of the Unrecognized Arab Bedouin Villages in the Negev (2006). As mentioned above, I also utilized data taken from non-profit organizations’ fact sheets and scholarly articles.

I used Earth Explorer’s Landsat Mosaic 7-4-2 to produce a generalized land-cover map of Southern Israel. I selected by attribute to concentrate my analysis in the HaDarom or the Southern District. I conducted spatial analysis and comparison between the Bedouin townships, recognized and unrecognized villages, as well as Jewish cities, villages, settlements, and hamlets. I mapped the population density, land use, and restricted areas. To do this, I had to hand-input and join data from the 44 unrecognized villages as well as from townships and newly recognized villages. I also added estimated populations for the unrecognized villages.

To create an online map with this information, I loaded shape files into tile mill to create a base layer map. This map included boundary, coastline, water, forest, and highway attributes. After that was created, I uploaded it into Cartodb and used it as the foundation for the map. Then, I added the columns in the tables for administrative names, Bedouin communities, and image files.

My visualization includes an administrative layer, density layer, and to categorical layers--one for Bedouin communities and one for media. For the Bedouin community layer, I used sql to separate the communities into three types and negate all other community types. Presently, for media, I only have images available, which were embedded from an album on Imgur.com. Finally, I created a website for the map using html, css, and javascript.