Reading the Past through 1960s Topographic Maps and Rediscovering Traditional Conservation Landscapes
By Bilal Alaouiyeh, Remote Sensing and GIS Expert, Specialist in Spatial Environmental Governance and Biodiversity Mapping.
By revisiting a set of official topographic maps drawn more than six decades ago, a quiet truth reemerges from Lebanon’s landscape. Long before modern conservation jargon, before GIS layers and biodiversity indicators, communities across the country practiced an organized, place-based system of environmental stewardship known as Hima. Far from being an abstract tradition or a romanticized memory, Hima is etched into Lebanon’s spatial record itself.
A Conservation System Written into the Land
The Hima system stands among the oldest community-based approaches to natural resource management in the Eastern Mediterranean. Rooted in collective governance, customary rules, and local accountability, Hima regulated access to shared rangelands, forests, water sources, and seasonal grazing areas. Its objective was simple yet profound, to maintain ecological balance while ensuring long-term livelihoods.
In contemporary discourse, Hima is often framed as intangible heritage, an ethical code revived to meet modern conservation challenges. Yet a closer reading of Lebanon’s physical history tells a different story. During the 1960s, systematic surveying operations conducted by the Lebanese Army produced a series of official topographic maps that documented the country with remarkable rigor. Embedded within these maps is unmistakable evidence that Hima was once a formal, named, and spatially recognized component of Lebanon’s territorial organization.
Hima on the Map, Literally
A preliminary review of these 1960s topographic sheets reveals the explicit appearance of the term “Hima” across multiple regions. In Dar Chmizen in the Koura District, Hima appears as a recognized place name within the mapped landscape. In Hadatha in the Bint Jbeil District, the designation is recorded in official nomenclature. Baysour in the Aley District carries the same imprint, while Ain el-Hima in the Al Maydaneh Plain near Kfarmaneh in Nabatieh District directly links Hima to a water source, reinforcing the historical association between Hima and the protection of springs and wetlands.
What is most striking is the geographic spread of these sites. From North Lebanon through Mount Lebanon to the South, the presence of Hima on official maps confirms that this was not a localized custom or an isolated experiment. It was a widespread land-management system, woven into the environmental and social fabric of the country.
Why Spatial Memory Matters Today
Mapping historical Hima sites is far more than an academic exercise. It is a strategic act of reconnection. By translating historical narratives into spatially explicit data, mapping anchors memory in verifiable geography. It demonstrates continuity rather than reinvention, giving strong historical legitimacy to contemporary Hima revival initiatives led by Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon.
This spatial evidence also carries practical implications. Identifying areas historically associated with protection helps inform modern land-use planning, environmental governance, and conservation prioritization, particularly around springs, forests, wetlands, and traditional grazing lands. When overlaid with contemporary datasets such as Key Biodiversity Areas, hydrological networks, and ecosystem services, historical Hima sites reveal patterns that remain ecologically relevant today.
Equally important, maps speak a universal language. They offer powerful visual tools for education, public awareness, and policy dialogue, making conservation history accessible to communities, decision-makers, and donors alike.
From Paper Maps to Digital Landscapes
Transforming decades-old paper maps into actionable knowledge requires methodological rigor. SPNL’s approach bridges archival research with modern geospatial science. Official Lebanese topographic maps from the 1960s are systematically collected and catalogued, noting the year of production, scale, sheet number, and issuing authority.
Place names containing the term Hima, along with its variants such as Ain el-Hima or Wadi el-Hima, are carefully identified. Where maps exist only in scanned or paper form, they are georeferenced using stable control points. Each Hima location is then digitized, as points for springs or named sites, or as polygons where a spatial extent can be reasonably inferred.
All sites are stored within a national historical Hima geodatabase, enriched with attributes including administrative location, environmental context, source map, and a confidence level reflecting cartographic clarity. Spatial analysis follows, examining distribution patterns, proximity to water and forest resources, clustering tendencies, and overlaps with existing conservation layers.
What This Work Will Deliver
This ongoing effort is expected to produce a national map of historical Hima sites in Lebanon, a living GIS-based geodatabase open to continuous updates, and an interactive StoryMap linking historical evidence with contemporary Hima initiatives on the ground. A scientific technical report will further support conservation planning and policy engagement at national and international levels.
Reading Maps with Care
Scientific caution remains essential. The appearance of the term Hima on a 1960s map does not automatically mean that a site is still managed as Hima today. Cartographic scales vary, accuracy differs between sheets, and place names can persist long after land use has changed. For this reason, confidence levels are applied, and where possible, findings are cross-checked through field verification and local knowledge.
Reclaiming a National Conservation Narrative
The presence of Hima in Lebanon’s official topographic maps confirms a simple but powerful fact. Hima is not merely a cultural memory or a revived idea. It is a spatially grounded, historically documented land-management system that once shaped the country’s relationship with nature.
By systematically identifying, mapping, and analyzing historical Hima sites, SPNL strengthens the scientific foundation of Hima revival, bridges traditional knowledge with modern GIS and environmental governance, and repositions Hima as a conservation framework of national and global relevance. In a time of accelerating environmental pressure, rediscovering what was once carefully mapped may be key to protecting what still remains.
