Periodic Reporting for period 2 - HYSOTIB (Global dynamics of hydro-sociality in river heritage landscapes of the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau.)
Reporting period: 2022-03-01 to 2023-02-28
HYSOTIB is a study of hydro-social dynamics in the Upper Yangtze river conservancy area, which is part of the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau's "Three-river source" (together with the Mekong and Yellow rivers). The project was originally intended to be an ethnographic research conducted on-site; however, because of the COVID-19 epidemic and related border restrictions, this was not possible. As a result, HYSOTIB was transformed into a geo-historical research using Western, Chinese, and Tibetan literary and cartographic materials, as well as ethnographic data gathered by the principal investigator prior to 2020. The research focuses on human mobility along a non-navigable section of the Upper Yangtze and the main trade corridors on the Sino-Tibetan border in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In doing so, HYSOTIB explores the Three-river source as an important river heritage landscape in China within the context of global heritage and water challenges.
Due to the pandemic's restricted mobility, it was not possible to conduct research on site. Thus, the current research work focuses on the analysis of geo-historical data about the Three River Source area and on contemporary China's water management and its global implications.
HYSOTIB provides wider understanding on how the area of the Three River sources as a key riverine landscape and frontier area has historically influenced mobility and power dynamics among the local communities and travellers between 1800 and 1950s. It also provides insight into key debates on contemporary management of the rivers of the Great Himalayan watershed.