Doctoral Dissertation Research: Restoration Science and Coastal Ecologies in Southern Louisiana

美国的许多城市和工业中心都在寻求恢复与海岸线的关系。随着湿地的侵蚀、海平面的上升和风暴强度的增加，海岸线正在迅速变化。这个项目询问沿海居民在不久的将来对美国海岸的价值，以及他们的投资如何与生态恢复科学的长期目标相交叉。一方面，恢复科学的承诺如何影响那些以海岸为生的人们目前的环境管理方式？另一方面，什么样的地方历史和认识论取向为生态恢复的长远目标提供了信息？位于路易斯安那州南部，国家资助的大型基础设施项目旨在恢复失去的湿地和振兴该州的沿海社区，本研究将调查路易斯安那州生态恢复的概念，询问恢复路易斯安那州海岸的可能性如何影响当地对未来环境的期望。汉娜·伯内特在芝加哥大学约瑟夫·马斯科博士的指导下，将探索路易斯安那州海岸前所未有的湿地侵蚀速度是否在不同的时间尺度上塑造了人们的期望和行为。在经历了2005年卡特里娜飓风和2010年英国石油公司石油泄漏等几次大规模灾难之后，路易斯安那州提出了几项河流改道计划，将密西西比河下游的部分改道，将富含沉积物的水释放到受到侵蚀的湿地上，以建设新的土地。这些基础设施项目旨在通过模拟自然洪水事件来重建路易斯安那州迅速侵蚀的海岸，这些自然洪水事件缓慢地积聚在该州的湿地中。这里描述的项目将在路易斯安那州东南部的沿海社区进行，这些社区将受到这些河流改道的最直接影响。通过采访当地渔民并陪同他们进行日常实践，研究人员建议阐明渔民所依赖的不同周期，研究这些周期受到湿地恢复长期目标影响的时刻。此外，研究人员将与修复科学家进行访谈，并进行档案研究，以更好地了解路易斯安那州生态修复的历史，确定修复进展的指标，以及科学家项目修复将实现的时间表。该项目将有助于人类学、STS和灾害科学更广泛地讨论环境变化、时间性、人类行为和沿海生态。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Many cities and industrial hubs in the United States are seeking to restore their relationship with coastlines that are rapidly changing as wetlands erode, sea levels rise, and storms increase in intensity. This project asks what coastal citizens value about the American shore in the near future, and how their investments intersect with the long-term goals of ecological restoration science. On the one hand, how do the promises of restoration science affect the way people whose livelihoods depend upon the coast approach their own environmental management practices in the present? On the other hand, what kinds of local histories and epistemological orientations inform the far-future goals of ecological restoration? Situated in southern Louisiana, where state-funded, large-scale infrastructural projects aim to recover lost wetlands and rejuvenate the state's coastal communities, this research will investigate the concept of ecological restoration in Louisiana, asking how the possibility of restoring the Louisiana coast is affecting local expectations of the future environment. Hannah Burnett, under the supervision of Dr. Joseph Masco of the University of Chicago, will explore whether the unprecedented rates of wetland erosion along the Louisiana coast have shaped expectations and behaviors along different temporal scales. In the wake of several largescale disasters such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the 2010 BP oil spill, Louisiana has proposed to install several river diversions that will re-route sections of the lower Mississippi River, releasing sediment-rich water across eroding wetlands in order to build new land. These infrastructural projects aim to rebuild Louisiana's rapidly eroding coast by mimicking the natural flood events that slowly accumulate into the state's wetlands. The project described here will take place in the coastal communities in southeastern Louisiana that will be most directly affected by these river diversions. By interviewing local fisherpeople and accompanying them in their daily practices, the researchers propose to shed light on the different cycles that fisherpeople rely upon, examining the moments when these cycles are affected by the longer-term goals of wetland restoration. In addition, the researchers will conduct interviews with restoration scientists, along with archival research, to better understand the history of ecological restoration in Louisiana, the metrics that determine progress towards restoration, and the timescales at which scientists project restoration will be achieved. The project will contribute to debates in anthropology, STS, and disaster science more broadly about environmental change, temporality, human behavior, and coastal ecologies.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.