Exploring individuals’ affective interaction with the object of water after an infrastructure disaster

Keywords: water resources, resource management, affective geography, community engagement
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

As climate change increases volatility in the environment, much of the critical water infrastructure in Texas, which is already failing, is subject to significantly increased risk of failure. Across the literature, there is a demand for localized context about people’s relationship with water, which may be used to empower data and analysis outcomes which may ultimately inform the field of water resources. Our ability to understand what affective relations are constructed by individuals who've experienced a water infrastructure disaster is vital to increasing public engagement by those working in water. It is important for researchers to continue to cross-pollinate theoretical approaches to further understand affective relations. The theoretical shift presented in this study is the recognition that affective spaces grant agency to objects with which people may construct affective relations. To substantiate my argument, I analyzed qualitative interview data which captured constructed affective relations with the object of water from people who have experienced a dam failure in the Lake Dunlap community. My analysis suggests that (1) participants’ affective relations with family history, recreation, and the building of family intertwined significantly with the object of water, impacting their decision about which physical location they chose to settle in; (2) a desire to return the physical landscape to its previous state as a lake drove people to support individual and organizational roles in accomplishing this, even if it conflicted with their interests; and (3) participants formed different perspectives on authority, responsibility, and water-resources management based on their differences in constructed knowledge.