January 13, 2012
| 
3
Portion of New Orleans protection plan: better levees (purple), rebuilt wetlands (orange) and Mississippi River water diversions to sustain healthier marshes (blue triangles).
Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans in 2005 and little has been done since then to improve long-term storm protection for the city and surrounding delta. The wait may finally be over. After years of fighting over competing plans between state and federal agencies, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, cities and parishes (counties), a grand plan has emerged, championed by a state agency whose leaders had been screaming into deaf ears about the need for better safeguards long before Katrina struck.
The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority revealed the master plan yesterday. The plan would require $50 billion over 50 years to rebuild vast marshes and barrier islands all along the delta coast, creating natural buffers against storm surges and waves. More levees, floodwalls and gates to protect New Orleans and other towns would also be erected. Several main parts of the plan echo recommendations experts made in a 2006 Scientific American article that weighed the potential options.
New Orleans’s primary local news organization, the Times-Picayune, has posted a clear, interesting article that explains the plan’s steps and considers the likelihood that they will gain the necessary public and political support. The site includes a map that shows where the primary projects would take place, as well as a map outlining the addition 1,756 square miles of wetlands that would be lost to the sea if the plan is not implemented.
The restoration authority will take public comments on the plan through February 25, and will hold three open meetings in and around New Orleans on January 23 to 25.
Image: Courtesy of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority
About the Author: Mark Fischetti is a senior editor at Scientific American who covers energy, environment and sustainability issues. Follow on Twitter @markfischetti.
3 CommentsAdd a Comment
You must log in or register as a ScientificAmerican.com member to submit a comment.
Faster-than-light neutrinos explained? 
My genetic profile says I’d be a heroin addict
Antarctica's Erratic Climate Shaped Icefish Evolution
The bacteria in your belly Pt. 2 - Adults
Ashes, Yarmulkes and the Hijab: Communitas and Religious Symbols
Tomorrow in Charlotte: 'How the Web is Changing the Way Science Is Communicated, Taught and Done.'
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
Share
Email
Print
I truly hope that those who are shocked at the price tag do recognize the extreme value of the New Orleans/Gulf area to America. NOLA will soon be celebrating its 300th birthday. Its port is such a huge economic boost that if it was lost you would be paying probably 20% more for such basics as gasoline and coffee. It’s a melting pot for culture creating so many fine foods, music, architectural delights and entertainers. A huge percentage of our seafood also comes from the region. Certainly if we can afford to spend $1 trillion invading foreign countries in our wars in the last 9 years we can afford 1/20th of this amount fortifying an important part of our own country.
Paul Harris
Link to thisAuthor, “Diary From the Dome, Reflections on Fear and Privilege During Katrina”
It really wasn’t Katrina that caused the death and destruction in New Orleans. The winds were that of a Category One storm and the flooding was due overwhelmingly to failure of the protective levees that should have held. A ton has been done to improve New Orleans’ levees, though the Master Plan to improve the levees to protect against a 500 year storm is a good step. It should also happen because of the new LSAC system soon to be released, hopefully late 2012.
Sandy Rosenthal, founder of Levees.org
Link to thisThe coast of the Gulf of Mexico is subsiding. The channelized Mississippi is not replenishing the Delta with silt.New Orleans is doomed. Its not a question of money. It’s a just a matter of time.
Link to this