Aerial view of Pajaro Levee 2023 after flooding. Photo by CA Department of Water Resources.
The Ethics Center announces the publication of an article that we hope will help the farmworker community of Pajaro, Calif., and many similar low-income communities living behind faulty levees throughout the United States.
In March 2023, a long-suspect levee broke in a winter storm and led to a disastrous flood in the community of Pajaro. The resilient people of Pajaro, shared their experiences with our faculty and student researchers, and we are grateful for their participation and for entrusting our team with their stories. Disasters do not impact all communities equally, particularly when infrastructure fails, and understanding these experiences helps to identify solutions with the people most affected, not just for them.
We thank Ethics Center Director, Religious and Catholic Ethics, David E. DeCosse, together with Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering, Rocio Lilen Segura, and Professor Iris Stewart-Frey at the Santa Clara University Environmental Studies Institute, and our great undergraduate (at the time this research was conducted) Environmental Ethics Fellows who co-authored the paper (Emma Young, Sarah Young, Tatum Petti, Karina Martin, and Anna Krebs). This work represents collaboration between faculty and students in engineering, environmental science, and ethics, and would not be possible without the generous donors who support the Environmental Ethics Fellowship.
Their work:
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analyzed geographic, historical, and socioeconomic drivers of vulnerability,
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conducted semi-structured interviews with residents to understand lived experiences of flooding, displacement, and recovery, and
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developed a relational environmental justice framework highlighting the need for participatory climate resilience.
The research, "A Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding Vulnerability and Building Climate Resilience to Levee Failures and Flooding in Historically Marginalized Communities," is published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences.
Related Articles and Resources
Environmental Justice & Common Good Initiative at Santa Clara University
Water and Climate Justice Lab at Santa Clara University
Investigating Justice Issues in Pajaro Levee Failure
The Community of Pajarjo, California
'Flood Injustice' Calls us to Declare the Dignity of Vulnerable Communities
Student Project Showcase 2024 - Anna Krebs ’25
Student Project Showcase 2024 - Karina Martin ’24
Student Project Showcase 2024 - Tatum Petti ’24
Student Project Showcase 2024 - Emma Young ’24
Student Project Showcase 2024 - Sarah Young ’24