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

学者们努力解释有助于当代基础设施恢复能力的潜在机制，因为当代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支撑了数千年来存在的某些基础设施的因素。在这篇授予博士学位的论文中，这位学生正在研究一项特别持久的基础设施-坎纳特灌溉系统-作为一个案例研究，以评估其在外部社会和环境变化的众多事件中的持续运营。根据初步研究，研究人员假设，这些坎儿井系统的弹性可以归因于它们对小规模的管理，这使它们能够迅速适应环境应激源。这项研究通过考察规模在维持技术运作的社会网络中的作用，为关于物质、人与环境关系和基础设施的新兴文献做出了贡献。在更广泛的意义上，该项目的调查结果为分散管理在加强当前生态危机中的基础设施弹性方面的潜在优势提供了宝贵的见解。此外，这项研究还倡导传承未被充分代表的维吾尔族社区的文化遗产。论文学生记录、评估和综合了坎儿井系统对气候波动、政治重组和可追溯到一千年来不断演变的农业实践系统的长期轨迹。该项目包括对研究地区200多个功能坎儿井系统进行为期9个月的实地考察，利用系统调查、古生态重建、地质年代学分析和人种学观察等跨学科计划。该奖项支持对坎纳特系统进行广泛的光激发发光(OSL)测年，这项技术已被证明对多个地区的类似系统是可靠的。获得日期是必要的，以建立这些系统的严格类型学，并揭示坎儿井进化和环境变化之间的关系，以及这些系统数千年来表现出非凡韧性的机制。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.