A Dutch Perspective on Coastal Louisiana Flood Risk Reduction and Landscape Stabilization

Abstract

After the disaster that hurricane Katrina caused along the Gulf coast and in particular in New Orleans (August-September, 2006), many in the United States looked at how the Netherlands protects itself against extreme flood events. Flood protection levels in the Netherlands, by international comparison, are very high but nevertheless affordable. Would the strategy followed by the Dutch not be the example that should be used when considering the long-term flood risk management in Louisiana? And given the rapid loss of wetlands in the Mississippi Delta, could Louisiana benefit from the recent change in policy in the Netherlands, in which preference is shifted from only relying on traditional approaches involving levees and flood barriers towards building with nature in combination with traditional approaches? The current planning activities in the framework of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration project (LACPR) aim to develop alternative strategies for long-term flood risk management options as well as for restoration of the rapidly deteriorating Mississippi Delta. In common language: LACPR focuses on both flood protection for Category 5 hurricanes and coastal restoration. Since Katrina, the existing co-operation between the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Netherlands Rijkswaterstaat (under the Netherlands Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management) has intensified and shifted its primary focus on shared flood management issues. In the frame…