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

学者们有必要解释有助于当代基础设施恢复力的基本机制，这些基础设施越来越容易受到环境和社会经济风险的影响。考古学在提供相关见解方面具有独特的地位，因为它可以系统地调查维持数千年来存在的某些基础设施的因素。在这篇博士论文中，博士生正在研究一个特别持久的基础设施-坎儿井灌溉系统-作为案例研究，以评估其在外部社会和环境变化的众多事件中的持续运作。根据初步研究，调查人员假设，这些坎儿井系统的复原力可以归因于它们的小规模管理，这使它们能够迅速适应环境压力。这项研究有助于新兴的文学物质，人与环境的关系，和基础设施，通过检查规模的作用，在维护技术运行的社交网络。从更广泛的意义上说，该项目的研究结果提供了宝贵的见解，分散管理的潜在优势，在当前的生态危机中加强基础设施的复原力。此外，该研究倡导代表性不足的维吾尔族社区的文化遗产。论文学生记录，评估和综合坎儿井系统的长期轨迹，以应对气候波动，政治重组和不断发展的农业实践系统，可以追溯到一千多年前。该项目涉及九个月的实地考察超过200个功能坎儿井系统的研究区域，利用系统调查，古生态重建，地质年代学分析和人种学观察的跨学科计划。该奖项支持坎儿井系统的广泛光激发光（OSL）测年，该技术已被证明可用于多个地区的类似系统。 获取日期是必要的，以建立这些系统的严格类型学，并揭示坎儿井的演变和环境变化之间的关系，以及这些系统已经表现出异常的弹性千年的机制。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.