Doctoral Dissertation Research Award: Investigating the Role of Scale in the Development of Flexible Irrigation Structures.

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

Scholars have endeavored to explicate the underlying mechanisms that contribute to the resilience of contemporary infrastructure, which is increasingly vulnerable to environmental and socio-economic risks. Archaeology holds a unique position to provide relevant insights, as it can systematically investigate the factors that have sustained certain kinds of infrastructure that have existed for millennia. In this doctoral dissertation award the dissertation student, is examining a particularly enduring piece of infrastructure — the qanat irrigation systems — as a case study to evaluate its continued operation amidst numerous episodes of external social and environmental shifts. Based on preliminary research, the investigators it is hypothesized that the resilience of these qanat systems can be ascribed to their management of small scale, which allows them to rapidly adapt to environmental stressors. This research contributes to the burgeoning literature on materiality, human-environmental relations, and infrastructure by examining the role of scale in maintaining the social networks within which technology operates. In a broader sense, the findings of this project offer valuable insights into the potential advantages of decentralized management in bolstering infrastructural resilience amid current ecological crises. Additionally, the study advocates for the cultural heritage of the underrepresented Uyghur community. The dissertation student documents, assesses, and synthesizes the long-term trajectory of qanat systems in response to climatic fluctuations, political reconfiguration, and evolving agricultural practices system which can be traced back over a thousand years. The project involves nine months of fieldwork on over 200 functional qanat systems in the study region, utilizing an interdisciplinary program of systematic surveys, palaeoecological reconstruction, geochronological analyses, and ethnographic observation. This award supports extensive Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating of the qanat systems, a technique that has proven reliable for analogous systems in multiple regions. Obtaining dates are necessary to establish a rigorous typology of these systems and reveal relationships between qanat evolution and environmental transformations, as well as the mechanisms by which these systems have demonstrated exceptional resilience for millennia. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.