The Channel is a Garden: Radical tools for a just transition on the Houston Ship Channel

Abstract

As global economies transition from fossil fuels, landscape architecture serves as a means of futuring the post-fossil environment. This thesis draws from ecological urbanism, degrowth, and climate justice to speculate on a just transition scenario for the Houston Ship Channel. It aims to answer the questions: What would a just transition along the Houston Ship Channel entail? How can landscape architecture renew a commitment to justice? While the Channel facilitates regional prosperity, it has proved to be a trans-scalar detriment to ecological and public health. The San Jacinto Monument, a colossal obelisk on the Channel mouth marking Texas’ independence, symbolizes this contemporary hubris. This thesis proposes a landscape intervention at the Monument as a staging ground for a landscape-driven drawdown of fossil industries along the Channel. The work addresses Houston community organizations and climate activists, and contributes to the futuring of contaminated soils, renewable energy, and the just transition.