First, a file geodatabase was created for each of the four countries of study: Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey. Each database was populated with data that would be necessary for the analysis. A website made by an organization known as Syria Tracker was found, which contained data that showed death locations throughout Syria. Syria Tracker is a non-profit organization that has been covering the crisis in Syria since 2011, and they have documented each death that has taken place throughout the country. This data was laid on top of an associated administrative shapefile to show deaths throughout Syria in relation to refugee camp location. Road and water data from Turkey and Iraq were provided by VDS Technologies, and all data from Jordan were derived from the Digital Chart of the World. In each country, specific distances from roads water, and residential areas were derived using the Euclidean Distance tool as a means to assess refugee camp quality. Elevation data, which was derived from the CGIAR Consortium for Spatial Information, was used to derive both slope and aspect data. These calculations provided output rasters that were subsequently used in later analyses to find suitable areas for new refugee camps. In some cases, buffers were created around roads or water to better illustrate distance relative to map scale. In the case of Iraq, data was found via a past CIA study which delineated ethno-religious boundaries within the country. Subtypes were created within this data set, in order to cartographically represent these boundaries. Also, city, town, and village data within Turkey were provided via VDS Technologies, and were used to show the proximity of the camps to the native Turkish populations, as well as their relative proximities to populated areas such as cities. Finally, a raster analysis was conducted in order to find suitable areas for new refugee camps in Turkey and Jordan. Before this analysis, suitable characteristics for future areas were identified based on various pieces of literature. Based on this research, several key characteristics were identified: all areas must have elevations of less than 1000 meters, must be within 1 mile of a major road, must be within 200 meters of some form of inland water, must be on slopes of 5 meters or less, and must have southerly or westerly facing aspects. First, elevation data was clipped using respective administrative boundaries for each country as masks. Both slope and aspect were then derived using this particular elevation model, using the slope and aspect tools within ArcGIS. The Euclidean Distance tool was then used to derive specific distances from features such as roads and water, and these rasters were subsequently rescaled and reclassified so as to create only a value of 1 that represented desired characteristics within the raster, and 0 representing undesired characteristics. These rasters were all used as inputs in the raster calculator tool, and using a Boolean expression, suitable areas for new refugee camps were then derived. Methodology The Crisis in Syria: Analyzing the Location of Current Refugee Camps and Possible Locations for Future Camp Sites Jacob Snyder GEOG\GISc 351 Spring 2014 University of Mary Washington INTRODUCTION Study Area The area of study that was of primary focus in this analysis were the three countries that immediately border Syria, which already contain refugee camps that are recognized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Turkey, Iraq, and Jordan. All refugee camps in each country were assessed in relation to locations in which deaths have occurred, as a means of finding out where the refugees are primarily coming from. Refugee camps were then analyzed in each of the three countries, as a means to infer the distance of the camps from water, a vital resource, as well as major roads, which are necessary for the retrieval of adequate aid. Figure 1 shows the location of Syrian refugee camps in relation to death locations throughout Syria. UMW LOGO HERE Figure 1:Syrian refugee camps in the surrounding countries in relation to deaths locations within Syria. In the Spring of 2011, the world witnessed widespread protests and subsequent revolutions in countries throughout the Middle East, in what would come to be known as, “The Arab Spring”. In Syria, citizens mobilized to protest against the centralized leadership and totalitarian policies of Baathist President Bashar al-Assad. To quell the increasingly growing rebellions, Assad ordered the Syrian Army to fire upon the protesting crowds, and triggered what has been the most bloody and catastrophic civil war that the Middle East has seen in recent decades. Millions of people were displaced from their homes within Syria, and thousands more have been forced to flee the country, creating the largest refugee population that exists in the world as of the year According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, close to 2.5 million Syrians have fled to the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq. Many of these countries contain areas that are highly arid, highly isolated, and are not suitable to house large amounts of people who are in desperate need of food, water, and medical treatment. The goal of this analysis is to assess the locations of current UNHCR-established refugee camps in Turkey, Iraq, and Jordan, and to assess the quality of these camps based on their locations in relation to infrastructural and natural commodities such as major roads and water. The ultimate objective is to find the most suitable locations in these countries to build more camps in order to temporarily facilitate Syria’s growing refugee population until the conflict is resolved. RESULTS In Iraq, it was observed that most refugee camps were located in areas in which they had reasonable access to water, while also being within acceptable distances of major roads. In addition to these findings, when the camps were laid on top of ethno-religious data for the country, it was seen that almost all of the camps were located in the area of northern Iraq known as Iraqi Kurdistan (see Figure 4). This showed that most of the refugees that are entering Iraq are Syrian Kurds from the northeast of Syria. In Turkey, the country in which there are the most officially open camps, most camps were located within reasonable distances of both roads and water. Additionally, all of the camps were located directly next to many villages, and in some cases, were within a 5 mile distance of towns and major cities. (see Figure 7). Finally, in Jordan, the country which currently houses the second-most Syrian refugees, the camps were always within a 4 mile distance of a major road, but 4 of the 6 camps were dangerously far from a source of inland water (see Figure 9). Figure 2: Proximity of camps to major roads in Iraq. Figure 3: Proximity of camps to inland water in Iraq. Figure 4: Camps in relation to ethno-religious boundaries Figure 5: Proximity of camps to major roads in Turkey. Figure 6: Proximity of camps to inland water in Turkey. Figure 7: Proximity to residential areas in Turkey. Conclusion In conclusion, the decision was made not to pursue an analysis that would locate areas for new refugee camps in Iraq, due to the instability that has characterized the area since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in On the contrary, there were many areas identified in both Jordan (see Figure 10) and Turkey (see Figure 11). It is of the utmost importance that both areas construct new camps to house the continuously growing refugee population, as most of the refugees will be coming from the northern and southern areas of Syria in association with growing hostilities in these regions. Specifically, Jordan must relocate its camps to areas in which water is more accessible and freely available. Figure 8: Proximity of camps to major roads in JordanFigure 9: Proximity of camps to inland water in Jordan. Figure 10: Suitable areas for new camps in Jordan Figure 11: Suitable Areas for new camps in Turkey References United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – Global Health Gateway – Unite For Sight