Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: The Upper Basin of the south rim of the Grand Canyon presents an excellent crosssection of different federal agencies' (Grand Canyon National Park and Kaibab National Forest) approaches to land management.Though the environment and cultural landscape are relatively similar between the two jurisdictions, different priorities lead to dissimilar land management practices.Evidence shows that divergent land management practices between agencies have profound effects on the level of disturbance across the archaeological landscape.In order to inform the discussion of disturbances across the Upper Basin, this thesis presents a vulnerability study that identifies areas of disruption in the archaeological record and the stressors that ultimately caused this damage.The study uses vulnerability theory, satellite remote sensing data, and GPS data, to analyze trends in ground disturbance and forest use that directly influence cases of inadvertent vandalism to archaeological sites.As a result of this analysis, a disturbance framework for the Upper Basin is presented that draws heavily from current ideas in vulnerability theory.Using this framework, conclusions can be drawn about the influence of federal land managers on archaeological disturbance.The results of this study not only provide evidence for differential preservation in the Upper Basin, but also highlight the use of GIS as a low-cost tool for federal employees to solve complex management issues.In addition, they show the utility of borrowing from human ecology and other fields to structure approaches to archaeological issues.
Author: Ryan M. Washam
Institution: University of Cincinnati
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Life on land
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2737087266