RAPID: Recovery, Relocation, and Alluvial Awareness in Post-Hurricane Houston

William Marsh Rice University, Houston TX

Investigators

Abstract

As post-hurricane recovery efforts in post-Harvey Houston turn toward future planning, state and local authorities are evaluating multiple proposals to increase the area's resilience to future storm and flooding events. A particular focus is what to do about neighborhoods that have flooded multiple times in the past three years. Some experts recommend expanding buyout programs. But short of widespread use of eminent domain eviction, any such program will require consent and participation from residents. The proposed research seeks to investigate how residents of flood-prone areas decide whether to remain and rebuild, relocate to other areas of the city, or relocate outside the city altogether. What factors do they consider important? What experiences make a difference in their decision making? What information and whose recommendations do they trust and use as they reach decisions about whether to remain or leave? The researchers suggest that accumulated alluvial awareness, which they define as attention to past and possible future flooding experiences, is increasing and that this awareness affects how attached residents feel to certain neighborhoods, communities, and the city itself. The significance of the proposed research also extends beyond Houston as coastal communities across the United States are beginning to see new rainfall and flooding patterns, whether associated with extreme rainfall events, the increase of "normal" rainfall, or with sea-level rise and subsidence. The proposed research will take place in two Houston neighborhoods that were severely impacted by Harvey flooding, Greenspoint and Meyerland. Even before Harvey both neighborhoods already counted among the three Houston neighborhoods with the greatest number of repetitive assistance payouts from the National Flood Insurance Program. Although the two neighborhoods share a vulnerability to major flooding, they are in many ways demographically distinct in income, education levels, ethnicity and race, housing stock (rental housing complexes vs. single family owner-occupied property). This contrast increases the probability that the proposed research will be representative of the economic and ethnic diversity of Houston as a whole while also making it possible to test the concept of alluvial awareness while controlling for other variables. The research team will consist of the anthropologist PI, Dr. Dominic Boyer, one postdoctoral fellow, and four undergraduate students, divided into two neighborhood-based teams. The researchers will employ a mix of social science methods. Working together with district council offices, neighborhood associations, environmental justice NGOs and faith-based communities, the research team will work to encourage community participation in a survey. They will select a sub-sample of individuals and families willing to participate in longer and more in depth semi-structured interviews. The project research team will seek volunteer families to be shadowed by researchers involving participant-observation in order to gain more intimate familiarity with individual and family decision-making processes. The project will contribute new insights to two highly theoretically generative areas of contemporary anthropological research: (1) the anticipation and temporalization of disasters; and (2) infrastructural arrangements and their influence on social identification and political subjectivity. It will also focus attention on chronic flooding as both a temporal and infrastructural phenomenon. The concept of "alluvial awareness" will be tested with the data gathered in the course of research. Findings will give anthropology and the social sciences a better grasp on the emotional and epistemic impacts of flooding in newly chronic flood zones. The proposed research will provide actionable data to local government and urban planners in terms of understanding the criteria according to which residents in coastal areas everywhere elect to remain or leave areas affected by chronic severe flooding.