A LOOK AT THE SYRIA WAR: MAPPING OF WAR LANDSCAPES BYMIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS USING IMAGES OF GOOGLE EARTH.

Abstract

Remote Sensing is an important tool for performing spatial analyses, allowing the observation of phenomena over time and their implications for landscape configuration. This writing aimed to map landscapes of the Syrian war using images of Google Earth, inorder to perceive the socio-spatial changes at the places directly affected by the conflict. This work is justified by the need to disseminate the use of Remote Sensing as a teaching tool in the classroom, either to bring students closer to the different contexts studied, or by the need to master the use of this technique and understand its importance for monitoring, knowing and studying of Earth, with its resources and realities. The Syrian war was the interface chosen to carry out this work with the use of Remote Sensing, once it has been on underway and has gained prominence in the media, either because of the geopolitical and economic importance of the Middle East, or the refugee crisis which has gone in worldwide proportions, generating a great humanitarian debate. The proposed mapping activity was executed by second year high school students, from state school Olgarina Pitangueira Pinheiro, located in the municipality of Conceição do Coité, Bahia, Brazil. This action happened in colaboration with students of History from UNEB (State University of Bahia) who participate in the PIBID (Institutional Scholarship of Teaching Initiation Program) promoted by CAPES (Commission for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel). The methodology used to develop this mapping consisted of a workshop, which involved theory and practice, collaborating to understand the context of the war in Syria, its unfolding and impacts on landscapes through the use of Remote Sensing. The theoretical part of the workshop consisted of three lectures that dealed with the themes of the Syrian War, Remote Sensing (here discussed as technique, science and art) and, finally, about 3 refugees; whilst the practical part was executed with the use of pairs of satellite images generated on Google Earth Pro of landscapes from Syrian cities of Aleppo and Daara, being one of the images referring to the beginning of the conflict and the other more current. The students observed and delimited the war-devastated areas in the most recent image, and then with the overlapping of vegetal paper, made the process of mapping these landscapes, with all the representation of roadways, built area, vegetation, reference points, and finally annexing the zones of devastation, thus generating a sketch that was exposed in panel next to the pair of images. The workshop promoted the dissemination of Remote Sensing as a tool for studies in the school environment, adding to the students of History a theoretical and practical knowledge about the use of this technique; andalso allowed the students' familiarization with the landscape's vertical gaze, beyond deepening the circumstances of the conflict in Syria.