A Native American Perspective on Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure in Southern California

Abstract

Although the needs for sustainable urban infrastructure systems are increasingly being recognized and addressed, the same is not true for Native American communities, where existence, condition, and access to a collection of infrastructure systems is often lagging behind urban and non-native communities. To date, there has been a quite limited number of studies exploring Native American perspectives on infrastructure challenges and how to build sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems in their communities. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify the challenges and opportunities for building sustainable infrastructure systems for Native American communities in Southern California and investigate how those communities experience, understand, and apply engineering practice in the context of their community and culture. Drawing from six group interviews, our study highlights challenges and opportunities for building sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems on tribal reservations in San Diego County, California, from the perspectives offered by Native Americans themselves. We focus on infrastructure systems fundamental to well-being: built environment, water/wastewater, telecommunications, transportation, energy, human capital, and education. Our research participants emphasized the importance of their cultures, sovereignty, and care for the welfare of their communities in innovating sustainable and resilient infrastructure. To accomplish this, a key priority should be to train native engineers, who are best positioned to understand the infrastructure needs and opportunities in their own communities.