| NSF Org: |
SES Division of Social and Economic Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | March 22, 2018 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | October 4, 2021 |
| Award Number: | 1754992 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Wenda K. Bauchspies
wbauchsp@nsf.gov (703)292-5034 SES Division of Social and Economic Sciences SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences |
| Start Date: | June 1, 2018 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $245,966.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $245,966.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1001 EMMET ST N CHARLOTTESVILLE VA US 22903-4833 (434)924-4270 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
PO Box 400766 Charlottesville VA US 22904-4766 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | STS-Sci, Tech & Society |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.075 |
ABSTRACT
This project will investigate the robustness and reliability of data generated through the collaboration between archaeological science and counterterrorism studies. The research will focus on two teams of scientists that have developed new techniques to study archaeological site looting in Syria and Iraq?an endeavor given particular urgency because of evidence linking insurgent groups with illicit artifact trafficking. Data generated by satellites have been central to this work. Satellite remote sensing works by capturing thousands of digital images and processing them on a computer through a series of mathematical functions. Despite the heavy reliance on machines and algorithms, the process of hybridizing and interpreting data relies on a series of judgment calls and individual interpretations, all of which is shaped by participants? training, disciplinary traditions, and institutional settings. Intellectual merit: Studying the judgment calls and negotiations inherent to this work presents an important opportunity to understand how technicians and analysts grapple with problems of data reliability and replication. We know little about how internal pressures of interdisciplinary collaboration and external pressures for actionable information shape researchers? judgment calls on standards of evidence and methods. As a broader impact, the research will inform public conversations among citizens, policymakers, and ethicists concerned with how new forms of sensitive data are being used to make strategic decisions about armed conflict abroad.
Three research questions structure the study, each of them concerned with the robustness and reliability of remote sensing data. Primary fieldwork will take place in two sites: one research team that reports directly to a federal agency and draws research support from that agency, and one research team that operates in a private university and does not rely on federal funding to do its research. At each site, the investigator will observe three sets of actors: Detectors (technicians, satellite engineers, machines); Analysts (archaeologists, NGO and think-tank personnel, and other interpreters of the satellite images); and Decision makers (agency officials and policymakers). Interviews and observations will focus on collaborative ties, gaps and overlaps in the image-generation process, and the production of policy recommendations. Comparing these two study sites will support analysis of site location impact on research outcomes. The project will contribute to our understanding of how big data decision-making informs counterterrorism efforts at the federal level. It has potential to transform the application of satellite remote sensing data to macrosocial issues by isolating the factors that lead to error or breakthrough in data processing and interpretation. Finally, the work will contribute to ongoing debates in the social sciences regarding the co-constitution of credible science and research endeavors that involve opaque, proprietary data collection and analysis. Findings about satellite remote sensing data management and processing, and its integration with archaeological data, will extend to supporting future collaborative work on counterterrorism studies, cultural resources management, and remote sensing hybridization in satellite teams and beyond.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
NSF project Remote Sensing and the Rise of Conflict Archaeology studied how archaeologists use remote sensing data to analyze cultural heritage destruction in conflict zones. Remotely sensed information includes emitted and reflected radiation from the earth that is collected by satellites or other instruments at a significant distance. Satellite images have provided a wealth of information to archaeologists since at least the 1960s. One of the chief advantages to these technologies is their capacity to observe features and activities that a single person could not see or understand at the average human’s vantage point. As satellite technology has improved, researchers have incorporated satellite images into an ever-wider range of cases and fields. We wanted to understand the standards that researchers have developed to ensure that they are using satellite images in ways that support scientific best practices. We focused on conflict archaeology because it brought together fundamental questions about the intersection of scientific best practice and the adoption of new data types. We focused on how concerns for reliability and robustness factor in their decisions to accept or reject satellite images as dependable data.
Our team collected data in three ways: interviews, observations, and archival analysis. We conducted 35 one-on-one, in-depth interviews with researchers who use satellite images to analyze archaeological looting and site damage. We observed 3 research teams whose members collaborate in their use of satellite images. We performed content analysis on thousands of pages’ worth of scholarly literature and Congressional documents on remote sensing technologies, satellite analysis, and archaeological destruction in conflict.
Our primary research questions were:
- What are the epistemic conditions in which satellite images are accepted by researchers as legitimate?
- How do metadata (a given satellite image’s backstory of algorithms and processing steps) matter to conflict archaeologists?
- What are the key methodological steps we can establish to apply to future (undiscovered or incipient) forms of new visual information?
We found significant variation in our study participants’ standards for robustness and reliability. Many researchers made individual judgment calls about how to interpret a satellite image and used those judgment calls to determine further action on the image or other images from the same carousel or instrument. To arrive at their judgment calls, researchers were visually assessing the utility of an image in much the same way they would decipher a photograph. It is true that some remotely sensed data visualizations support this type of analysis, but some do not. In the latter cases, it is important to understand metadata and image limitations. We also found that researchers who worked specifically on the Syrian war faced pressure to generate findings in timeframes that necessitated truncated analytical procedures. Urgency was a common theme in our interviews. Conflict-related violence in Syria and Iraq damaged or destroyed significant numbers of cultural heritage sites and objects, and there was pressure on researchers to publicize perpetrators and events. Interview participants described work environments in which they felt there was inadequate time to perform checks and comparisons on satellite images.
Our findings did not reject the use of satellite imagery in the study of conflict dynamics or cultural heritage change detection. We concluded that satellite images and other remotely sensed data do, and will continue to, bring significant advantages to the work of documenting and analyzing these areas. This conclusion aligns with other researchers’ findings that remotely sensed data present a powerful perspective on large-scale change including mass atrocities in war. We did make recommendations for how to improve the incorporation of satellite imagery into research studies of conflict archaeology:
1) Establish selection criteria and make a record of the decision steps.
2) Identify image metadata.
3) Describe visual content thoroughly before interpreting it.
4) Select comparison images and record discrepancies.
These recommendations were published in scholarly papers and presented at conferences. We have subsequently incorporated them into our own research, trained our students to adopt them, and trained students at other institutions in these practices.
Our outcomes include peer-reviewed publications, a public-facing essay, and conference talks. We also generated teaching materials, a coding guide, and internal metadata standards in line with the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) metadata best practices. Project funding supported a full-time postdoctoral researcher and two undergraduate research assistants. The research assistants were taught how to code textual content, transcribe interviews, perform a literature review, and prepare and co-deliver a public seminar presentation. The postdoctoral researcher obtained a tenure-track academic appointment after the first year of the project. The ethical considerations of remote observation remain of paramount importance. With NSF support, we were able to develop parameters for satellite analysis that are attentive equally to ethics and robustness and reliability.
Last Modified: 08/19/2024
Modified by: Fiona Greenland
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