What is the conflict?
The Sacramento San Joaquin River Delta (SSJRD) is an inland river delta connected to the San Pablo and San Francisco Bay, in Northern California. Since the California Gold Rush (mid-19th century), the hydro-morphology of area has changed substantially to provide soil and freshwater for farming and for the urban areas across the state. A process of land ‘reclamation’ consolidated a settled population that currently ranges between half a million and 4.5 million people, depending on formal delimitation of the area.
Different ethnic communities shaped the landscape of the delta with their labor. Asian workers (Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Punjabi) contributed to build the levees and work in the fields. Subsequent waves of migrants included Southern Europeans and Mexican workers.
The town Locke was built Chinese-Americans for Chinese inmigrants, often excluded from other areas of California. This significant part of the cultural heritage of the Delta is little known for the public at large.
Photo: Dai Loy Gambling House Museum in Locke, CA (BRL)
Today, two thirds of the population in California rely on freshwater supply from the SSSJRD. Farming in the region was once a symbol of venturous spirit and still constitutes a fundamental source of food provision for California. However, the impacts of farming (e.g., water diversion, land subsidence and effects in water quality) confront farmers with efforts to preserve or restore the ecological values of the delta. Such values include fisheries and protected wildlife, which united to the aesthetic qualities of the delta landscape, makes it an important recreational site based on aquatic sports and wildlife watching. Existing and planned infrastructures aim at underpinning the stability of the waterscape and maintaining water quality for the massive water exports to other regions.
Today, the main tensions in this case emerge from decisions that confront north-to-south water deliveries (mostly for irrigation) with fish species conservation; the choice between the impacts of using surface water or groundwater; the maintenance of expansion of water-related infrastructures (levees, water tunnels) against pursuing the naturalization or ecological restoration of the region; and the choice between supporting farming and or tackling the delta subsidence and decreased water quality. All this occurs in the context of increased awareness of the effects of climate change in the area.
Why is this a special conflict?
This case represents the difficulties to profile a complex, multi-stakeholder environmental conflict, with difuse leaderships in terms of environmental activism. The SSJRD delta is critical for California's water supply while holds important ecological values related to the conservation of fish and bird species and plays an important recreational role. The impossibility to reverse the alterations of the delta’s hydro-morphology configures a classic illustration of the social creation of nature.
Efforts of ecosystem restoration in the California Delta involve both publicly-funded lands and private investestments.
Photo: BRL
What is the role of art in this case?
The cultural and artistic facets of this case are under-studied, despite the significan attention of scientific research in the area since the 1970s. Historical records or documents reporting recent events in the area use visual media profusely. The online representation of the SSJRD through visual media differs considerable according to the platform chosen, with photography dominated by a technocratic or aesthetic perspective and film focussed on recreational uses.
With this in mind, CLAMOR is examining the use of visual media under two main approaches:
Scientific researchers are an important group of actors in this case. They have consistently generated knowledge about the state and trends of the area, mostly from the hydrology and bioscience domains. Scientists have also provided independent advice to State authorities on their planned courses of action. We study the ways in which visual or artistic creation supports natural resource science in topics surrounded by controversy. Our aim is to reveal the power of visualization in matters where scientific advice is an important component of the environmental disputes.
The narratives of environmental change in the area emphasize the SSJRD as an evolving place. After compiling visual materials, we will analyze them through content analysis and visual text analysis to trace which narratives of change are endorsed by which actors, and the type of landscape transformations that each narrative represents. In this approach we will emphasize the role of emotions and affection in waterscape transformations, and which positions are relatively more represented or excluded in visual materials produced around the management of the SSJRD.
For more information
Check out the website of Delta Protection Commission’s Delta Narratives project, the catalogue of museums of the partnership Visit CA Delta, and the document ‘Delta as an Evolving Place’ of the independent science board for the Delta Stewardship Council.
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