Anthropology

Flood risks are a chronic concern for many coastal inhabitants, and considerable effort may be invested to mitigate those risks. In many settings, however, projected future flood risks are sufficiently great that infrastructural mitigation strategies are limited. In such settings, how do residents and other stakeholders adapt to the prospect of rapid coastal change? This dissertation research examines the social, political, and material effects of planning for flood events and climate change for coastal urban waterways.

This research project investigates land-based communities and a network of ecological theorists to analyze the range of strategies that are utilized in building communities committed to ecological restoration and sustainability. It specifically asks what knowledge sources these communities draw upon, and how those knowledge sources are integrated, in ecological restoration efforts. The project aims to expand understandings of the range of ecological restoration strategies and knowledge resources that communities marshal in adapting to environmental change.