Date of Award

12-18-2024

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Geosciences

First Advisor

Richard Milligan

Second Advisor

Ellis Adams

Third Advisor

Luke Pangle

Abstract

Urban development has had diverse hydrological impacts in the Atlanta metropolitan region. Infrastructure-mediated flows (IMFs) denote the different pathways along which piped water mixes with flows in the environment. The impact of IMFs can be found throughout the Atlanta metropolitan region, and racialized disparities play a key role in the communities most at risk. While scholarship on these issues has predominantly been rooted in hydrologic science, it is equally important to understand the IMF phenomenon from the city’s water governance history in order to contribute to critical social sciences scholarship, especially critical physical geography and environmental justice. Understanding Atlanta’s history of racialized disparity is important for creating lasting and sustainable improvements to the region’s water infrastructure. By combining the historical geography of Atlanta’s water governance and infrastructure with an analysis of current stakeholders’ perspectives and decision-making related to IMFs within the South River watershed, this project seeks answers to: 1) What are the historic ties between water infrastructure and social inequalities in Atlanta? 2) How are metro Atlanta’s IMFs perceived, measured, and managed by water managers, planners, conservationists, and advocates? and 3) To what extent do stakeholder understandings of IMFs recognize, consider, or confront urban environmental injustices in the South River Watershed?

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