Doctoral Dissertation Research: "Mapping a Wildfire: Mapping practices, environmental knowledge, and the unpredictable nature of disaster"

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

Mapping Wildfire: Mapping Practices, Environmental Knowledge, and the Unpredictable Nature of Disaster Summary In October 2007, Southern California faced one of the largest wildfire events in its history. Developing ways to represent and visualize these wildfires posed a great challenge for fire officials, disaster responders, and news reporters as they worked to gather and share information about the unfolding situation. Maps became both vital tools of communication and techniques for making the fires knowable. This dissertation project examines the production of the maps made during the 2007 wildfires to explore how diverse groups of people ? scientists, first responders, journalists, and the public ? interacted to develop mutually legitimate ways of understanding the wildfires. Technical Description This project uses a mixed set of methods including interviews of key actors, observation of wildfire map-making, and analysis of government, scientific, and media documents to examine the often-unanticipated synergy between technological change, human interactions, cultural imaginings, and the environment. Broader impact This dissertation will contribute to studies of disasters that look beyond questions of risk management to consider the types of knowledge used to make disaster plans, the practices of communication in disasters, and the different community conceptions of a disaster. As natural disasters create obstacles for normal infrastructures of communication, they make it necessary for responders to push the limits of policy to include messy and impromptu interactions in order to get their jobs done. In the process, it becomes possible to see how these actors come to accept new ways of thinking about the environment, new forms of legitimate data and mapping technologies, as well as new types of expertise. Understanding the creative and collaborative work behind these new methods of representation will be of great importance for communities involved in disaster planning and response as they help explain why environmental debates take their unique shapes and make it possible to ask better questions about planning for future disasters.