Date on Master's Thesis/Doctoral Dissertation

8-2025

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Department

Geographic and Environmental Sciences

Degree Program

Geography (Applied), MS

Committee Chair

Walker, Margath

Committee Member

Day, C. Andrew

Committee Member

Barry, James

Author's Keywords

relational geographies; hybrid geographies; urban political ecology; flooding

Abstract

Many conservation initiatives position nature and the urban as opposing constructions, which means the possibilities where cities can work with nature are often overlooked. This study uses the lens of relational geographies to examine nature in the city by comparing two greenspaces in the Beargrass Creek watershed in Louisville, Kentucky: Waterfront Botanical Gardens and the Louisville Nature Center. The two organizations are compared by using a combination of content analysis, discourse analysis, and GIS flood analysis methods to determine how their geographical location and history affect the ways in which the dynamic between nature and culture is reproduced. Results show that the two sites produce different versions of nature, which can be broadly summed up as “nature as wilderness” and “nature as art.” This thesis is a concrete case study applying hybrid and relational geographies and details the ways in which nature organizations shape our perceptions of nature.

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