Foreword

Conca, Ken

doi:10.1093/oso/9780197788066.002.0005

Extract

I never intended to write a book about Ellicott City. I’ve spent my career studying water, as a basic need, a human right, a disruptive force, a source of conflict, and a bridge for peacebuilding. I’ve done this work on several continents: in national capitals, water ministries, the corridors of the United Nations, and farmers’ fields. Yet, the Ellicott City floods first drew my attention for more personal reasons. When the heavy rains descended there on July 30, 2016, I found water seeping across my basement floor and trickling from the light fixture in my dining room. A few hours later, I learned about the tragedy that unfolded just 4 miles east of my home.

As the shock of disaster subsided, the county government announced that it would produce a watershed master plan for Ellicott City. This struck me as a bold, forward-thinking effort, and I started to attend local planning meetings and community workshops. Perhaps I’d have something to offer in the discussions; maybe I’d get an idea for an article on managing flood risk. That article never got written because the story took a sharp turn. A second catastrophic flood, triggered by an eerily similar “thousand-year” rainfall event, struck just 22 months after the first. In its wake, the public debate on what to do grew more contentious; the proposed solutions, more extreme and divisive. The lessons of the story began to shift away from what an effective response to flood risk might look like. The story became how hard it can be—conceptually, politically, emotionally—to navigate the dialogue about what to do. Recounting what was happening in Ellicott City and why it mattered had suddenly become a much bigger task.

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