Controlled Flooding in the Grand Canyon

Drifting Between Instrumental and Ecological Rationality in Water Management

Bibliographic Data

ID20413380
AuthorsJames G Rice (0000-0002-6723-7243, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, USA), James Rice (0000-0003-2016-3731, New Mexico State University, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume26
Issue4
Pages412-430
Publication date2013-12-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueOrganization & Environment (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1086-0266 • E-ISSN: 1552-7417
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1086026613509250
OpenAlexW2152286452
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited49

Construction of the Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona was motivated by the conviction that a river running to the sea is a resource forsaken. Since 1963, it has provided water storage, recreational opportunities, and electricity for millions. It has also generated far-reaching ecological changes, and controlled flooding has been employed since 1996 to restore ecological habitat downriver in the Grand Canyon. The present study situates these high-flow experiments at the Glen Canyon Dam within a neo-Weberian theoretical perspective attuned to a posthumanist critique. The objective of high-flow experiments is to attain greater balance between ecological and instrumental rationalization processes. They are not simply an experiment in habitat renewal but an operational shift signaling a greater resolve to evolve with nature, but they also illustrate the challenges inherent to large-scale ecological restoration. Nonetheless, controlled flooding illustrates important lessons with regard to the need to reflect on, learn from, and adjust socionatural relations in response to ecological degradation and change

Canyon · Environmental resource management · Geography · Habitat · Political science · Environmental Science · Law · Water Governance and Infrastructure · Ecology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub