Detecting Historical Water Management Systems in the Arid Landscapes of the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Region.

My PhD focuses on using image recognition algorithms to detect heritage in the MENA (Middle East/ North Africa) region. There is a particular emphasis on historic water management systems such as canals and their source paleochannels. These features represent historic multi-period sustainable irrigation systems. Their study can not only reveal more about vulnerable heritage in the region, but can also inform policy about how to keep agriculture sustainable in response to climate change. This is particularly important in arid regions where agriculture is solely reliant on irrigation systems and there is a movement towards unsustainable electric and diesel pumps that are lowering the ground water table. I am aiming to use a multi-modal approach which includes both optical and radar data to detect these features, and curate an optimal image recognition algorithm to do so which may include the use of SAM to overcome the challenge of sample scarcity in archaeology.