Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

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Open Access Thesis

Abstract

Flooding poses an escalating threat to human well-being, economic stability, and environmental resilience in climate-sensitive regions such as Juneau, Alaska, where the retreat of the Mendenhall Glacier has produced an actively expanding ice-dammed lake, Suicide Basin, capable of triggering an annual Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF). This thesis explores the governance and government policies shaping flood preparedness and response in Juneau, Alaska, with particular attention to GLOF risk and the August 2024 GLOF, one of the most destructive flood events in the city's history. Grounded in adaptive governance theory and political ecology, the study offers a multidimensional perspective on institutional flexibility, multi-level coordination, power dynamics, and the integration of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) held by the region's Tlingit and Haida peoples. Using a qualitative case study design, the research draws on thematic and content analysis of twelve governmental planning documents, eleven publicly available stakeholder and policymaker testimonies, and a supplementary semistructured interview with a community and policy expert, triangulated to assess convergence and divergence between official narratives and lived experience. Findings show that Juneau's flood governance system rests on a substantial institutional foundation but is constrained by outdated flood risk designations, fragmented inter-agency coordination, an activation-dependent rather than continuously adaptive response model, systemic marginalization of TEK, and inequitable community engagement in preparedness planning. These structural gaps, most visibly exposed during the August 2024 event, indicate a governance system not yet aligned with the pace and scale of glacially driven flood risk. The study concludes with targeted policy recommendations spanning governance and government policy reform, preparedness, and response system strengthening, and Indigenous knowledge integration, offering both a Juneau-specific roadmap and transferable lessons for other glacially influenced, geographically isolated, and Indigenous-inhabited communities confronting climate-driven flood risk.

Year of Submission

2026

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Geography

First Advisor

Andrey Petrov

Date Original

2026

Object Description

1 PDF file (xi, 102 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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