AAG Abstract, final draft
Ok, I think this is it; I'm submitting it now. Wish me luck! I kind of feel like I'm taking a $200 gamble. To be fair though, I'm also rather looking forward to the conference for its own sake. I'm not as familiar with the field of geography as I'd like to be, and though my applications will all be done by then, I'd really like to see what kind of work is being done and presented on.
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This poster examines the historical geography of Pike Creek, a buried urban river in the post-industrial Great Lakes town of Kenosha, Wisconsin. This research highlights the significance of this nearly-forgotten river to the city in both the past and the present. Urban Streams and rivers are receiving increasing attention around the world. Restorations of existing streams, or “daylighting” of streams rerouted underground have taken place in cities as varied as San Luis Obispo, California; Detroit, Michigan; and Seoul, South Korea.
My mixed-methods research into the historic geography of Pike Creek involves archival research with plat maps and tax records, early written histories of the city, noted planner Harland Bartholomew’s 1925 comprehensive city plan, newspaper archives, municipal board of health records, and academic theses. Research on the present context includes oral history interviews with people who have lived experience of the creek, as well as first-hand exploration and photography of remaining portions of the waterway. Finally, I performed GIS-facilitated spatial analysis of the creek by comparing census data and city zoning information with the creek route to highlight the number of people living within the watershed and the wide array of cityscapes that it connects.
The urban development that reshaped Pike Creek from the center of Kenosha’s major industries into a fragmented series of streams and drainage channels offers insight into understandings of, and relationships with, waterways on scales from individual to regional. I trace the historical geography of the river’s transformation from critical resource, to development nuisance, to forgotten relic.
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There's going to be a four foot by eight foot poster board for me? That's huge! I wonder if I can fill it. I do have plenty of visual material that's germane to this project. Many years of historic plat maps, photographs, my own digitization and analysis work....
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This poster examines the historical geography of Pike Creek, a buried urban river in the post-industrial Great Lakes town of Kenosha, Wisconsin. This research highlights the significance of this nearly-forgotten river to the city in both the past and the present. Urban Streams and rivers are receiving increasing attention around the world. Restorations of existing streams, or “daylighting” of streams rerouted underground have taken place in cities as varied as San Luis Obispo, California; Detroit, Michigan; and Seoul, South Korea.
My mixed-methods research into the historic geography of Pike Creek involves archival research with plat maps and tax records, early written histories of the city, noted planner Harland Bartholomew’s 1925 comprehensive city plan, newspaper archives, municipal board of health records, and academic theses. Research on the present context includes oral history interviews with people who have lived experience of the creek, as well as first-hand exploration and photography of remaining portions of the waterway. Finally, I performed GIS-facilitated spatial analysis of the creek by comparing census data and city zoning information with the creek route to highlight the number of people living within the watershed and the wide array of cityscapes that it connects.
The urban development that reshaped Pike Creek from the center of Kenosha’s major industries into a fragmented series of streams and drainage channels offers insight into understandings of, and relationships with, waterways on scales from individual to regional. I trace the historical geography of the river’s transformation from critical resource, to development nuisance, to forgotten relic.
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There's going to be a four foot by eight foot poster board for me? That's huge! I wonder if I can fill it. I do have plenty of visual material that's germane to this project. Many years of historic plat maps, photographs, my own digitization and analysis work....