Doctoral Dissertation Research: Producing Collaboration through Community-level Processes of Water Management and Infrastructure Planning

佛罗里达国际大学博士候选人Suzana D. Mic将在Laura A. Ogden博士的指导下，研究如何在日益增加的政治和环境压力的背景下产生和维持协作治理。为此，她将收集有关预期气候变化条件下社区一级水管理和基础设施规划过程的数据。这项研究将在佛罗里达州的迈阿密进行，之所以选择迈阿密，是因为就资产受到海平面上升威胁而言，它是世界上最脆弱的城市地区之一。迈阿密在水系统管理方面也有着悠久的成功历史，将以前的沼泽环境转变为以人为中心的人类管理生态系统。迈阿密已被其他面临类似问题的城市奉为榜样。研究人员将使用一系列民族志方法来收集微观层面的数据，这些数据不仅需要了解水管理的结果，还需要了解产生这些结果的社会、文化和政治过程。她的数据将包括对迈阿密地区的科学家、环境活动家和规划者的半结构化采访。她将出席公众会议、规划论坛和董事会会议。她将收集和分析过去气候变化规划活动的记录，以进一步研究这些努力中涉及的社会政治关系、冲突和共识点。此外，她还将审查佛罗里达州立档案馆有关迈阿密水资源管理历史的文件。数据将被编码，并使用定性数据分析软件进行分析，以了解水管理的历史和当代过程如何影响社区适应气候变化带来的挑战。

Florida International University doctoral candidate Suzana D. Mic, supervised by Dr. Laura A. Ogden, will undertake research on how collaborative governance is produced and maintained in the context of increasing political and environmental stressors. She will do this by gathering data on the community-level processes of water management and infrastructure planning under conditions of anticipated climate change. The research will be carried out in Miami, Florida, which was chosen because it is one of the world's most vulnerable urban regions in terms of assets threatened by rising sea levels. Miami also has a long history of successful water system management that has transformed a former swampy environment into a human-managed and human-centric ecosystem. Miami has been invoked as a model by other municipalities facing similar problems. The researcher will use a range of ethnographic methods to collect the micro-level data needed to understand not only the water management outcomes but also the social, cultural, and political processes that produce those outcomes. Her data will include semi-structured interviews with scientists, environmental activists and planners in the Miami area. She will attend public meetings, planning forums, and board meetings. She will collect and analyze recordings of past climate change planning activities to further examine the socio-political relations, conflicts and points of accord involved in these efforts. In addition, she will review documents at the Florida State Archives related to the history of Miami's water management. Data will be coded and analyzed with qualitative data analysis software to understand how the historical and contemporary processes of water management affect the community's adaptation to the challenges posed by climate change.