Name: Date: A House Divided: GIS Exercise It is 1947 and you have been selected to serve on the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question. Palestine has been administered as a British Mandate since World War I, but the United Kingdom plans to evacuate the territory by 1 August 1948. Because the United Nations considers that the present situation in Palestine is one which is likely to impair the general welfare and friendly relations among nations, your committee is charged with dividing the region of Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. You will use GIS to identify and analyze key variables that bear on this important decision and to create a map reflecting your partition plan. Step 1 Start ArcView. When the Welcome screen appears, click Open an Existing Project and then click OK Step 2: Navigate to the Palestine directory and open the palestine.apr file The project opens and you see a world map in the view window and a list of themes in the table of contents. NOTE: You should maximize the ArcView program window and then stretch the View window (the map) by dragging the lower right corner to make it larger. Do not maximize the View window. The themes with check marks next to their name are displayed in the view. 9
Step 3: Locate Palestine The region of Palestine in 1947 is outlined inside the red circle on the map. a. Click the Zoom In tool. Click on the map and drag a box around the red circle. When you release the mouse button, the view redraws and is centered on the box you drew. b. Repeat the process of zooming in so that the red circle fills your view window. In the space below, describe Palestine s location. 10
c. Click Palestine Outline, 1947 in the table of contents to make the theme active. (A slightly raised box appears around the theme name.) Click Zoom to Active Theme to center the view on Palestine outline, 1947. d. Make Bodies of Water the active theme. Click the Identify tool. Click one of the bodies of water on Palestine's eastern border. An Identify Results window appears and you can see the name of the body of water. Record this below. Click the other body of water on Palestine's northeastern border. Write its name below. e. Turn on Palestine 1922-1948 and make it the active theme. Click Zoom to Active Theme to focus on Palestine 1922-1948. What countries or territories bordered Palestine in 1947? Step 4: Measure Palestine s Size in 1947 a. Turn off Bodies of Water and Jordan River. b. Click the Measuring Tool. Place the cursor over the northernmost point in Palestine. Click and hold the mouse button as you drag the cursor to the southernmost point in Palestine. Double-click to end the segment. 11
A Segment Length appears in the lower left corner of the view. How many miles does Palestine stretch north to south? c. Use the Measuring tool to answer the following questions: 1. How wide is Palestine at its widest point? 2. How wide is Palestine at its narrowest point in the north? 3. How wide is Palestine at its narrowest point in the south? d. Turn off Palestine 1922-1948. Step 5: Describe Palestine s physical characteristics a. Click the Add Theme button. b. Navigate the to the project s data directory inside the Palestine directory. Hold down the shift key and select the following two themes then click OK: eco_pal.shp precip_pal.shp c. Click the Add Theme button again. Select Image Data Source from the Data source Types drop-down menu. Select relief.tif. Click OK. d. Make relief the active theme (click on the theme name so it appears raised). 12
e. Click the Theme Properties button and change the theme name to Relief. Click OK. f. Repeat the process with the other two themes: Rename precip_pal: Yearly Rainfall Rename eco_pal: Ecozones g. Drag Palestine Outline 1947 to the top of the Table of Contents. h. Turn on and observe the Relief theme. This theme shows relief in Palestine. Describe the patterns of relief that you observe in Palestine. i. Turn off Relief and turn on Yearly Rainfall. Describe the patterns of yearly rainfall that you observe in Palestine. j. Turn off Yearly Rainfall and turn on Ecozones. Describe the patterns of ecozones that you observe in Palestine. Step 6 Label and compare the four quadrants of Palestine In order to compare and analyze the different parts of Palestine, you will use a pair of intersecting lines that divide Palestine into four imaginary quadrants: northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast. a. Turn on Quadrants. Move Quadrants to the top of the Table of Contents. You will use the Text tool to label the quadrants NW (Northwest), NE (Northeast), SW (Southwest), and SE (Southeast) b. Click the Text tool. Click in the Mediterranean Sea near Palestine s northwest border. 13
c. Type NW in the Text Properties dialog. Click OK. d. Repeat the steps above and label the other three quadrants: NE, SW, and SE. e. Click the Pointer tool to turn off the Text tool. Click and drag any of the labels to move them in a more desirable location. Now that you have divided Palestine into four hypothetical regions (NW, NE, SW, and SE), you are ready to evaluate the desirability of each region as a place to live. f. In order to complete the rating chart below, you will need to analyze each of the following themes as they apply to living conditions: Relief Ecozones Yearly Rainfall Jordan River Bodies of Water 14
After you have observed the pattern of these themes in a region assign it a rating from * to *****. Explain your rating for each quadrant in the space provided. * = least desirable * * * * * = most desirable Quadrant Rating Explanation for Rating Northwest Northeast Southwest Southeast g. Turn off the Quadrants, Relief, Ecozones, and Yearly Rainfall themes and turn on Palestine 1922-1948 again. The blue areas on this map indicate areas of Jewish settlement in Palestine in 1947. How would you describe the areas of Palestine where the Jewish population has settled (refer to your ratings chart above). h. Stop here and save this ArcView project. Follow your teacher's instructions on how to rename the project and where to save it. 15
Step 7: Divide Palestine into two states The task before you, as a member of the U,N. Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question, is to divide Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. In order to assure peaceful implementation of the plan, it is important that each group is treated fairly and that the plan keeps the need to relocate the current population to a minimum. In striving for a fair and equitable partition, you should consider Palestine s physical characteristics as well as the current (1947) composition and distribution of its population. Use the table on the Student activity sheet (Jewish Land Ownership and Population Distribution in Palestine (1880-1947) as well as the GIS data in the ArcView project to plan your partition boundaries. Two important notes: Do NOT use quadrant lines as a basis for your boundaries these imaginary lines were only drawn in to help you compare the characteristics of Palestine s different regions. Jerusalem is a holy city to Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike. Your plan must account for the reality that neither Jews nor Arabs are likely to accept a plan that places Jerusalem under the control of the other. a. Turn off Relief, Yearly Rainfall, and Ecozones themes. Turn on the Palestine 1922-1948 theme. Zoom to the extent of that theme. As you know, the blue areas on the map indicate areas of Jewish settlement in Palestine in 1947. You should assume that Palestinian Arabs lived in the remaining parts of Palestine. In those remaining areas, the highest Arab population would be in areas that are most desirable to live (Refer to the rating chart you created.) In order to report on your partition plan, you will need to draw your proposed boundaries on a map. On your final map, the Jewish state will be represented in red and the Arab state in blue. To do this, you will create a new theme. b. Turn off Palestine, 1922-1948. From the View menu, select New Theme. c. For Feature type, select Polygon. Click OK. 16
A dialog box appears, asking you what you want to name the new theme and where you should save it. d. Name the theme Jewish.shp and ask your teacher where to save the file. Navigate to the location your teacher tells you and click OK. Jewish.shp appears at the top of the table of contents. You will use ArcView draw tools to draw the area you think should be the Jewish state. First, you will set the symbol color for the Jewish state polygon. e. Double-click Jewish.shp to open the Legend Editor. Double-click the colored box to display the Fill Palette. Select the symbol for a medium halftone screen. Click the Paintbrush icon to display the Color Palette. Change the foreground color to red and the background color to transparent. Close the Color Palette by clicking the "x" in the upper right corner of the window. Click Apply on the Legend Editor and close it. The symbol for Jewish.shp is now updated in the table of contents. 17
f. Click the polygon draw tool. Click the cursor along the boundary line you propose. You will need to click numerous times on a line that curves. Double-click to complete the polygon. The red polygon appears. Helpful hint: If you have made a mistake, click the delete key and start again. If that doesn't work, click the Pointer tool, click on the polygon you want to delete and hit the delete key. Click the Polygon Draw tool again to start drawing. g. You can fine-tune your boundaries with the Vertex Edit tool. Zoom into a section of the boundary that you would like to edit. Select the Vertex edit tool. Click once on the new polygon and all the vertices display as small squares. Click and drag these vertices to modify your boundary line. When you have finished editing your boundary lines, select Stop Editing from the Theme menu. Click Yes to save the edits to Jewish.shp. Make Jewish.shp the active theme. h. Click the Theme Properties button. Change the theme name to Jewish State. Ask your teacher where you should save your project and how you should rename it. If you have already renamed the project in a previous step, save it now. i. Repeat Steps b-h above to create an Arab state on the map. When selecting a color for your new polygon, choose blue. Save the new theme as arab.shp and rename it later to be Arab State. j. Save your project. 18
Step 8: Defending your boundary decisions a. Fill in the chart below to explain the reasons for the boundaries you have created. Be prepared to show your map to the class and to explain its merits and identify potential problems. Advantages (Physical and Cultural) Jewish state Arab state Potential problems How the plan deals with Jerusalem 19
Step 9: Create a Layout of Your Partition Plan a. Make sure all of the following themes are turned on: Jewish State Jordan River Bodies of Water Land Arab State Water Palestine Outline, 1947 b. Zoom into the view until the outline of Palestine takes up the entire view. When you are satisfied with the map you see in the view, proceed to the next step. c. From the View menu, select Layout. Select Portrait and click OK. A layout with the map, title, legend, scale bar, and north arrow appears. d. Click the Text tool. Now you will add your name and date to the map. e. Click in the lower right of the layout map and type your name in the Text Properties box. For example: f. Click the Pointer tool and if necessary, use it to reposition your name and date. g. From the File menu, select Print. Step 10 Exit ArcView In this exercise, you used ArcView to explore physical and human characteristics of Palestine in 1947. After analyzing this data, you drew polygons representing your proposal for dividing Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. Save your project and Exit the ArcView program. 20