Histories, Practices, Futures of the San Joaquin Valley @ Landscape Justice Initiative

Completed with Andrea Binz, MLA ’22
Completed with Andrea Binz, MLA ’22
Completed with Lauren Cubacub, MLA ’21
Completed with Nehali Doshi, MLA ’22
Completed with Nehali Doshi and Andrea Binz, MLA ’22
Completed with Leslie Dinkin, USC MLA’23, Lauren Cubacub, USC MLA’21, Jade Orr, USC MLA’18
Completed with Hannah Flynn, MLA’23, Lauren Cubacub, MLA’21 and Jade Orr MLA’18

Alison Hirsch, PI;

Research team: Jade Orr, Sarina Vega, Nina Weithorn, Yuliang Jiang, Leslie Dinkin, Hannah Flynn, Andrea Binz, Lauren Cubacub, Jared McKnight, Ana Mangino, and Nehali Doshi.

With partner organization: Valley Forward (2020-2021); Environmental Defense Fund (2022-2023); and Allensworth Progressive Association (2022-2023)

Supported by the Landscape Architecture Foundation Fellowship in Innovation and Leadership (Hirsch) and USC School of Architecture Research in Architecture funding program

2019-ongoing

Visit YourSJV.org, created in partnership with Valley Forward.

View Alison’s presentation to LAF of the work in progress.

A Landscape Ethic for the ‘Working Country’ – Histories, Practices, Futures of the San Joaquin Valley

With archival, field, mapping and community research ongoing in the SJV and many partners on the ground, the project will culminate in an exhibition and book that presents the history of the Valley’s landscape formation (agriculturally, socially, culturally and ecologically) and the visioning of its possible futures (emphasizing equity and racial justice, health, climate adaptation and cultural resilience). The futures narratives and visualizations are emergent from research on policies and practices that have shaped the valley over the past 150 years, as well as the most up-to-date polices, regulations, and on-the-ground realities presently impacting the SJV and its most vulnerable communities. Most significant to this is a sustained community engagement process through which to best understand challenges, hopes, desires and dreams of those living, laboring and raising families in this harsh landscape.

As part of this research, LJI is working with the Environmental Defense Fund to vision the Multibenefit Land-Repurposing Program in anticipation of the 500,000-1 million acres of land that will be taken out of production by 2040 to meet the standards for the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). This allows for a
range of possible reconceptions of this complex place that prioritizes the health of rural communities that labor its landscapes.