Of maps and eating bitterness: The politics of scaling in China's South-North Water Transfer Project

Based on extensive fieldwork as well as a discourse and content analysis of relevant government documents, we identify two important rescalings around China's South-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP), the world's largest water project to date. These rescalings work in tandem with a discourse around the long-held Chinese ethic of “eating bitterness” (enduring hardship or chiku) and serve to include and exclude stakeholders and manufacture public acceptance of the project in the face of significant social, economic, and ecological trade-offs. We focus on two rescalings—one a more orthodox upscaling to the central government and one that relies on a fragmented, geographically disembodied, subnational scalar construction. Both rescalings operate in representational spaces, but also have important material dimensions. The case of the SNWTP demonstrates how rescaling is not only about power struggles between administrative political units, but can also be used as a political tool to exert power over particular groups of people.     

Fording differences? Conditions mitigating water insecurity in the Niger River Basin

River basins are an extremely important source of freshwater for Africa and the impact of climate change on these communities constitutes an important question worth studying. Among these basins, the Niger River Basin is an ideal candidate for meso-level theory testing of climate change-induced political violence because of its importance as one of the largest sources of freshwater in Africa, its high vulnerability to climate change, and its location in a politically unstable region. This paper utilizes the benefits of GIS to test whether effects of water insecurity on the various incidences of political violence are conditional on economic, geographic, and social means of connectivity. Our analysis uses the density of secondary road networks, the geographic distance to the Niger River, and a shared co-ethnicity with one's head-of-state to evaluate the impact of hydrological stress and its subsequent risk for political violence across nine West African countries from 1997 to 2012. Using climatological data and an econometric de-trending method, we measure the separate, substantive impact that individualized changes in precipitation trend and precipitation variability have for the incidence of ACLED's political violence events, conditional on local economic, geographic, and social factors. Our results reveal a complicated web of circumstances under which certain forms of political violence are more/less likely to be observed. The implications of this analysis serve as a call for a closer inspection of the micro-channels by which climate stress impacts heterogeneous communities in the developing world.     

Identifying Relevant Cases of Conversion and Drift Using the Comparative Agendas Project

One of the most important phases of case‐oriented research is identifying the relevant population of cases. The best practice scheme suggests first identifying the positive and then the negative cases, based on the assumption that the population is small and known. This scheme is inapplicable when the population is unknown, as is the case with many public administration and public policy outcomes, which are often less visible. However, most research either ignores this difficulty or recommends a single case study. This article suggests that when the population is unknown scholars can apply the possibility principle to identify the relevant population of cases. In order to do so, a large dataset is required. In policy studies, the Comparative Agendas Project (CAP) can serve this aim. This article highlights CAP's applicability for case selection based on the possibility principle in two less visible policy outcomes: conversion and drift. In that, it not only addresses an overlooked challenge but also promotes both CAP as a useful tool for qualitative researchers and the expansion of comparative work on conversion and drift.     

Accurate measurements with primitive instruments: the “paradox” in the qanat design

Qanats are up to 3000 years old artificial sub-horizontal underground water channels, 5–80 km long, widespread in Iran, but also common in western China, Arabia and the Mediterranean; they were excavated from the bottom of vertical shafts, starting from their exit and advancing upstream till main, productive wells, constructed at the very beginning of the project were met. Successful qanat excavation therefore required accurate geodetic design, though based on primitive instruments; an apparent “paradox”, obscured by the tremendous social and economic significance of qanats controlling lifestyle in arid regions.     

Modelling of hydrology and potential population levels at Bronze Age Jawa,Northern Jordan: a Monte Carlo approach to cope with uncertainty

An annual water balance model for Wadi Rajil, in Northern Jordan, is used to simulate the ancient water supply system for the Early Bronze Age site of Jawa. The model includes: water delivery from the catchment; local pond storage; and water demand for people, animals and irrigation. A Monte Carlo approach is used to incorporate the uncertainty associated with a range of factors including rainfall, evaporation, water losses and use. The stochastic simulation provides estimates of potential population levels sustainable by the water supply system. Historical precipitation estimates from a Global Circulation Model, with uncertainty bounds, are used to reconstruct the climate at Jawa in the Early Bronze Age (EBA). Model results indicate that the population levels in the predicted wetter conditions during parts of the EBA could have risen to ∼6000 and may have been higher in wet years. However, palaeoclimatic proxies also suggest prolonged droughts in the EBA; and during these periods the water management system was unable to provide adequate supply for a population of 6000. The utility of Monte Carlo based hydrological modelling as a tool within archaeological science is discussed.     

Southwest Scottish Crannogs: using in situ studies to assess preservation in wetland archaeological contexts

This paper presents the results of in situ monitoring of waterlogged burial contexts in southwest Scotland. The sites investigated are Iron Age crannogs (lake dwellings) which have a proven waterlogged archaeological component, and which are being assessed as part of a national program of study by the Scottish Wetland Archaeology Programme (SWAP) team. A monthly monitoring program commenced in July of 2004. To date, monitoring of water levels, pH, and redox potential, has been undertaken for a period of 17 months in order to encompass any seasonal variability at the sites studied. The results have proven robust in that an ‘ideal’ site for in situ preservation has been identified from the five sites investigated, and the monitoring has highlighted external variables and seasonal impacts that have the potential to influence the long-term in situ preservation at the remaining sites studied. In general, these results have expanded upon our knowledge of the potential for the preservation of existing archaeological remains within such contexts. This study represents the first stage of monitoring aimed at developing a holistic understanding of in situ conditions at the crannog sites studied in southwest Scotland.     

Wild or domesticated: DNA analysis of ancient water buffalo remains from north China

Recent zooarchaeological studies on water buffalo (Bubalus sp.) remains from China and south Asia question the traditional view that water buffalo were first domesticated in Neolithic China over 7000 years ago. The results from several recent population genetic studies of modern domesticated buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) are not consistent with each other, placing the original center of buffalo's domestication in south Asia, southeast Asia, or China. This paper reports a study using an ancient DNA approach to analyze water buffalo remains from Neolithic sites in north China to investigate their affinities with modern domesticated water buffalo, and to shed light on the origin of modern domesticated water buffalo in China.A 169 bp fragment of D-loop mitochondrial DNA was successfully amplified and verified for 13 of 24 bone samples obtained from seven archaeological sites along the Wei River valley in Shaanxi Province, China. The bone samples which yielded positive DNA can be dated to 8000–3600 cal. BP. The phylogenetic analysis of the obtained DNA sequences along with modern water buffalo sequences indicated that the ancient water buffalos were not the direct ancestor of modern domesticated water buffalo. However, the phylogenetic analysis, along with BLAST searches of these ancient DNA sequences, did demonstrate their relatedness to water buffalo more so than to any other bovid species, confirming the existence of indigenous wild (but now extinct) water buffalo species (B. mephistopheles) in ancient China.The DNA analysis of these ancient remains failed to establish direct links between modern domesticated water buffalo (B. bubalis) and indigenous water buffalo (B. mephistopheles) from ancient China. If further DNA studies of more ancient remains from other regions of China confirm the observation of solely indigenous water buffalo species in ancient China, it would suggest modern water buffalo might not have been first domesticated in China.     

Water, technology, and the courtroom: negotiating reclamation policy in territorial New Mexico

Historical investigation of arid landscapes and communities in the American West has long focused on the pivotal influence of federal reclamation policy, typically characterizing its implementation as the application of scientific and technological methods to a variety of water resource management issues. This paper departs from traditional views of reclamation by highlighting the highly variable and contingent ways in which new science-based forms of water management were proposed and negotiated in specific local places with particular cultural, legal, and historical geographies. Drawing theoretically from literature on the ‘geography of science,’ the paper probes the ways in which authority for a scientific approach to water management was created, negotiated, and expressed in local and regional contexts in the Territory of New Mexico, where authoritative systems of practical resource use and administration had been in long use before the U.S. government initiated its federal water reclamation program in 1902. Specifically, the paper examines two disputes entered and argued in front of northern New Mexico’s Rio Arriba District Dourt between 1903 and 1905. By departing from the geographical and scalar perspectives typically applied to environmental histories of the West and its reclamation landscapes, this ‘microgeographical’ approach promises a fresh perspective that emphasizes the highly contingent ways in which science-based water policy was implemented in multiple and complex environments.     

水域景观美学价值评价理论研究

水域景观是自然风景的重要组成部分。美学价值是人类审美和水域景观联系的纽带。水域景观美学价值的评价是天然水资源成为景观水资源(旅游资源)的先决条件,美学价值的高低直接影响水域景观的观赏质量,它是水域景观旅游价值评价的重要内容。本文首先根据人类神经生理、心理学等学科的研究成果探讨人类审美的主观缘源;再重点剖析水域景观的美学特征;最后提出水域景观美学价值评价的理论。     

论黄河流域前期新石器文化的文化特征和时代特征

７０年代以来,在黄河流域陆续发现的几支前期新石器文化,曾在学术界引起热烈讨论。本文通过对每个文化的分布区域及文化特征的具体分析,阐明了它们相互之间的纵横关系,认为它们是各自相对独立的文化实体。