Doctoral Dissertation Research: Planning Flood Resilient Infrastructure

美国各地城市和地方的规划者和工程师面临着越来越大的挑战，他们要开发出更高效、技术更健全的方法来应对严重的灾难，如野火、洪水和自然灾害。根据当前联邦紧急事务管理局(FEMA)的洪水风险指定，在过去五年中，休斯顿发生了五次500年一遇的洪水。从地方到联邦的每个政府都面临着建设城市和社区以适应不断变化的环境环境的挑战。这个项目调查了参与基础设施开发的当地工程师、开发商、行业代表和公职人员如何在制定洪灾缓解计划的过程中驾驭这些不断变化的条件。除了为人类学研究生提供经验、科学数据收集和分析方法方面的培训提供资金外，该项目还将通过向被投资制定更有效的科学方法和减灾减灾规划的科学方法的组织广泛传播其研究结果，加强对科学的了解。该研究项目调查了德克萨斯州休斯敦石油和天然气行业中心节点的环境影响和响应。这座大都市及其工业基础设施特别容易受到海平面上升、海岸侵蚀和日益毁灭性的风暴的影响。美国国家海洋和大气管理局(NOAA)测量，目前休斯顿航道入海口的海平面上升比世界上几乎任何其他地方都要高。这项研究将包括在休斯顿进行为期12个月的人种学实地调查(包括参与者观察和半结构访谈以及绘图练习)，考察公共和私营部门利益攸关方在洪水基础设施规划中的作用。随着洪水加剧的威胁迫在眉睫，这些利益相关者如何协调对社会、经济和环境灾难的纠缠恐惧？通过对洪水基础设施准备的民族志和档案证据的定性和空间分析，本研究探索了象征主义和专业知识之间的二分法，其中科学知识、公共叙事和既得利益可能会影响基础设施规划中截然不同的方法。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Planners and engineers in municipalities and localities around the United States are increasingly challenged to develop more efficient and technologically sound methods for contending with severe disasters, such as wildfires, floods and natural disasters. In Houston, five 500-year floods have hit in the last five years according to current Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) flood risk designations. Every government from local to federal is challenged with building cities and communities resilient to changing environmental circumstances. This project investigates how local engineers, developers, industry representatives, and public officials involved in infrastructure development navigate these changing conditions in the development of flood mitigation plans. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, the project would enhance scientific understanding by broadly disseminating its findings to organizations invested in developing more effective methods for communicating science and the scientific method in disaster and flood mitigation planning. The research project investigates environmental impact and response at a central node in the oil and gas industry, Houston, Texas. The major metropolitan city and its industrial infrastructure is uniquely vulnerable to sea level rise, coastal erosion, and increasingly devastating storms. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) measures current sea level rise at the mouth of the Houston Ship Channel as higher than almost anywhere else in the world. The research will include twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork (including participant-observation and semi-structured interviews as well as mapping exercises) in Houston examining public and private sector stakeholders roles in flood infrastructure planning. As threats of intensified flooding loom, how do these stakeholders negotiate entangled fears of social, economic, and environmental disasters? Through qualitative and spatial analysis of ethnographic and archival evidence of flood infrastructure preparations, this research explores the dichotomy between symbolism and expertise where scientific knowledge, public narrative, and vested interest may influence sharply different approaches in infrastructural planning.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.