Urban Expansion and Rural Contentions: The Political Ecology of Suburbanization and Water Scarcity in the American Southwest

Funding disclosure: Mount Holyoke Department of Geology and Geography Independent Research Grant

Abstract

The American Southwest is experiencing urgent concerns over water scarcity as the population grows and global climate change contributes to increased and unpredictable aridity. Contentions over both groundwater and the Colorado River emphasize the necessity for water-conscious solutions going forward. However, what is critically missing in water scholarship in the American Southwest is how ongoing urban expansion into historically rural fringes of Colorado brews contentions and distrust across the spatial divide. Using data from in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and geoprocessing of Coloradoan water levels, this paper attends to the lived experience of water scarcity, changing identities, and politics on a local scale to deepen the understanding of the Southwestern struggle over water. Grounded in a political ecology analytical framework, this paper challenges macrolevel apolitical characterization of the groundwater crisis in Colorado by empirically defining multiple ways in which water is deeply tied to struggles of rurality and power in a rapidly changing landscape. Ultimately, I argue that bringing the issue of water scarcity across the rural-urban divide is crucial for reckoning with not only sustainability and conservation of natural resources but also the sustainability of identity.