Settler Computing: Water Algorithms and the Equitable Apportionment Doctrine on the Colorado River, 1950–1990.
This article links optimization algorithms in US southwestern water management to equitable apportionment and prior appropriation water policies in the 1950–1990 period. I argue that quantitative water law and algorithmic water management are coconstitutive historical processes, as they derive from...
| Published in: | Osiris Vol. 38; no. 1; pp. 265 - 286 |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
University of Chicago Press
2023
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=164798782&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 164798782 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 03697827 29Z jtl: Osiris issn: 03697827 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2023 vid: 38 iid: 1 pid: 415 pub: University of Chicago Press artinfo: ui: 164798782 10.1086/725187 ppf: 265 ppct: 21 formats: tig: atl: Settler Computing: Water Algorithms and the Equitable Apportionment Doctrine on the Colorado River, 1950–1990. aug: au: Dryer, Theodora su: United States. Bureau of Reclamation Optimization algorithms Water laws Water Water management Natural resources sug: subj: United States. Bureau of Reclamation Optimization algorithms Water laws Water Water management Natural resources ab: This article links optimization algorithms in US southwestern water management to equitable apportionment and prior appropriation water policies in the 1950–1990 period. I argue that quantitative water law and algorithmic water management are coconstitutive historical processes, as they derive from the same formulation of settler colonial space and time—a practice I call settler computing. Settler computing clarifies how the settler theft of Indigenous natural resources is formalized within projects of data-driven resource management. I engage this history by reflecting on a major water planning project led by the Bureau of Reclamation called the Central Utah Project (CUP), which was formally enacted in 1956. When tech developers appropriated the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation's water and land during the development of CUP, this appropriation was simultaneously encoded in linear optimization frameworks. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2023 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|