UP IN THE AIR: INFORMING AND IMAGINING CLIMATE ADAPTATION ALONG THE NEW JERSEY SHORE By DAVID C. EISENHAUER A dissertation submitted to the School of Graduate Studies Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Geography Written under the direction of Robin Leichenko And approved by _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ _____________________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey October 2019 ii © 2019 David C. Eisenhauer ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Up in the Air: Informing and Imagining Climate Adaptation along the New Jersey Shore by DAVID C. EISENHAUER Dissertation Director: Robin Leichenko In this dissertation, I examine the challenges posed by climate change to the New Jersey shore region as well as efforts to inform and support successful adaptation policies. The core argument of the dissertation is the region needs transformational change in the near term if a socially and ecologically vibrant future is to be achieved. Informing the design and supporting the implementation of sustainable transformational pathways requires engaging with the deeply entrenched cultural, economic, and political commitments that configure contemporary development within the New Jersey shore region. By drawing upon archival and historical research along with semi-structured interviews and participant observation, I demonstrate that historical and contemporary processes have contributed to material and imaginative path dependencies within the shore region that have led to governance and management prioritizing private property rights and economic growth over ecological and social sustainability. I argue that to support more just and sustainable pathways, practitioners working within the boundaries of science and policy must engage more with the political, imaginative, and normative dimensions of collective life in the New Jersey shore region. In making this case, the dissertation is divided into two main sections. In Section One, I trace the historical development, entrenchment, and extension of the prevailing sociotechnical imaginary guiding development in the New Jersey shore region. In particular, I highlight how racism, ii iii capitalism, politics, and technological innovation all intersected to produce the contemporary space of the region. In doing so, I elucidate how historical forces are still present in the New Jersey shore landscape in the form of material infrastructure, public policy, and cultural visions of desirable life. In Section Two, I examine how ongoing initiatives to inform the creation of successful climate change policies must grapple with myriad constraints—including the historical ones described in Section One but also emergent ones due to climate change. In light of the numerous constraints to effective adaptation, I develop a heuristic to differentiate and connect individual barriers in order to help distinguish which factors drive slow and ineffective policy responses. By identifying and addressing such constraints, I argue it is possible to foster cascading change towards more desirable social and ecological arrangements. Following this, I provide an in-depth examination of how one initiative to provide municipal government actors with tailored and usable climate information succeeded in getting climate change adaptation on the policy agenda. I highlight the crucial role that boundary objects played in not only supporting collaboration, but also convening the process, securing buy-in, and implementing policies. At the same time, while the examined effort did manage to get municipal government elected officials and staff to begin planning for sea level rise, coastal flooding, and powerful storms, it did not lead to the transformational change commensurate with the plausible impacts of climate change in the coming decades. Thus, more work needs to be done to support systemic change that targets the central constraints to sustainable adaptation. In the conclusion, I develop the concept of ‘imaginative fit and interplay’ to help guide collaborative knowledge production initiatives in producing transformative knowledge. I also discuss future research to building off these insights to support transformative change towards a more socially just and ecologically vibrant New Jersey shore region. iii iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation was only possible due to the immeasurable support from friends, colleagues, family, and mentors. I want to first express my gratitude to my exam and dissertation committee members: Robin Leichenko, Kevin St Martin, Pam McElwee, Maria Carmen Lemos, and Heidi Hausserman. Their patience and generosity allowed me to grow and learn throughout my research and writing. In particular, Robin has been incredibly kind and supportive as an advisor and provided keen insights that vastly improved my thinking and writing. The entire faculty of the Geography Department has been supportive during my time as a graduate student. The Department provided a rich learning environment that challenged me to think critically and creatively about the world. Funding from Sea Grant and the National Science Foundation helped support my fieldwork. Without this funding, conducting research would have been incredibly difficult and much more stressful. I also owe a great deal of gratitude to my many fellow graduate students in the Department, especially, Hudson McFann, Ana Mahecha-Groot, Sangeeta Bannerji, Priti Narayan, Ben Gerloffs, David Ferring, Wei-Chieh Hung, Mónica Hernández, Ali Horton, Mike Brady, Debby Scott, Ariel Otruba, and Josh Randal. Without the support—intellectually and socially—of these individuals, completing my dissertation would have been an isolating process. I look forward to the hopefully lifelong friendships with all the kind and brilliant members of the Rutgers Geography community. The staff of the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve were also crucial in opening up doors for my research throughout the shore region. Lisa Auermuller, Jenna Gatto, and Chris Huch provided a wealth of information about municipal governments in the shore iv v region as well as the main issues facing the coastal communities. They graciously lent me their credibility with municipal government staff and officials. Without their support, scheduling interviews would have been much harder. Additionally, I would like to extend a thank you for all of the extremely busy and overworked municipal and NGO staff that spent time answering my questions about their jobs, concerns, and responsibilities. I can only hope that some benefits emerge from this research that help them. I want to express the deepest gratitude and love to my family who have always supported me. To my parents, I can never fully express my appreciation for the encouragement and insights they have provided me throughout my life. To Winnie, I will always be grateful for your patience, keen insights, willingness to read early drafts, and constant, unwavering support. To Sara and Rick, I could not ask for a better older sister and brother-in-law. Their friendship and support mean the world. Moreover, without them I would not have five (soon-to-be-six) amazing nephews and nieces. To all of my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, I am thankful for the countless treasured memories and small moments of encouragement that I have received throughout my life and look forward to decades more. In particular, without my grandmother, Doris Clayton, I would not have been introduced to the New Jersey shore as a child. I spent many summer weeks in Ocean City growing up and have many memories spent with her. This dissertation is dedicated to her memory. Finally, I want to thank my oldest and closest friends: Nathanial Blanco, Michael Newton, Nick Smith, Malcolm St Clair, and Zach Millen. They have been with me through thick and thin. Without them, my life would be incredibly dull. v vi Table of Contents ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ....................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iv Chapter 1—The Coming Transformation: Unavoidable Change in the New Jersey Shore ........... 1 1—Up in the Air: How Climate Change Became Part of the Story of the Shore ....................... 1 1.2—The Challenges of the Anthropocene: Misaligned Institutions and Imaginaries ............... 5 1.3—Informing Pathways out of Maladaptive Space: The Need for Transformational Change in the Here and Now.................................................................................................................... 8 1.4—Designing and Implementing Transformational Adaptation Pathways: The Need for Transformative Climate Science ............................................................................................... 14 1.5—Producing Transformative Climate Science: The Need for Transformed Institutions ..... 21 1.6—Escaping maladaptive space: Opening up through the imaginative ................................. 31 1.7—Outline of Dissertation ..................................................................................................... 35 Section 1—Placing the Anthropocene in the New Jersey Shore Region ...................................... 39 Introduction—Acceleration in the Jersey Shore ......................................................................