Environmentalists, Spies, and Scientists: Remote Sensing in and of Eurasia I

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

Some patterns of broad scale social and environmental change are difficult to see from the ground but come into focus from above. However, few in the social sciences and humanities take advantage of remote sensing data (earth imagery typically captured through satellite and aerial photography) and associated analysis methodologies to buttress their work. Considering how countries in the Eurasian region, notably the Soviet Union, were instrumental in early advances in remote environmental monitoring, more attention should be paid to the methods, associated technologies, and social assemblages surrounding remote sensing. Further, with the declassification and digitization of aerial reconnaissance imagery from the US CORONA program, opportunities to conduct historical research on Eurasia from above are more prevalent than ever.

The papers in this panel incorporate remote sensing methods into the socio-environmental study of the Eurasian region, as well as interrogating historical and cultural specificities of remote sensing, environmental monitoring, or aerial data analysis within the Eurasian region.

Sub Unit

• Geography, Environmental Studies

Chair

• Evangeline McGlynn, Harvard U

Papers

• Remote Sensing-Based Monitoring of the Soil Salinity in Syr Darya River Lowlands - Kanat Samarkhanov, L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National U (Kazakhstan)

• Gardening under Climate Change: Communicating and Sharing Good Practices in Arctic Cities - Vera Kuklina, George Washington U

• The Other 90%: Loss of Riparian Forest in the Aral Sea Region of Uzbekistan - Kate F Shields, Rhodes College

Discussant

• Ruth Trumble, Hofstra U