Long-Term and Interdisciplinary Approaches to Water Use and Management in the Mountain West

Summary

This is an abstract from the "A Further Discussion on the Role of Archaeology in Resource and Public Land Management" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Water heritage associated with water use and management, including infrastructure like canals, irrigation ditches, and ponds, and intangible heritage like traditions, experiences, stories, and myths, reveals how past and present communities adapt to uncertain climatic and changing social conditions. Across the Mountain West, water heritage is rapidly being modified or destroyed by climatic uncertainty, water conservation efforts, economic development, and increasing tourism. Long-term and interdisciplinary approaches to understanding water heritage across time and space can highlight broad and universal patterns of water-human relations. Knowledge of this entwined relationship informs our ability to cope with current and projected climatic fluctuations like drought and extreme heat. This paper integrates ethnographic and archaeological case studies of water use and management from watersheds in northern and southern Utah, across multiple temporal scales, to inform on both academic research and cultural resource management. Archaeological datasets show how past communities modified landscapes, developed water infrastructure technology, and other cultural adaptations when faced with shifting climatic conditions. Information from ethnographic interviews present us with rich descriptive and first-hand accounts of water management in practice among today’s climate and development challenges. We illustrate how these sources provide a comprehensive understanding of human-water relations in the region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• A Further Discussion on the Role of Archaeology in Resource and Public Land Management   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36976.0