Constraints facing the implementation of the greater New Orleans urban water plan

Constraints facing the implementation of the greater New Orleans urban water plan

Visschedijk, A.
Van de Ven, F.H.M.

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Water Management

2015-01-01

On September 6th of last year the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan (UWP) was presented. A comprehensive plan which addresses flooding caused by heavy rainfall and soil subsidence caused by excessive drainage. Every year parts of the Greater New Orleans Area flood due to severe rainfall events in spring and summer. New Orleans receives an average annual rainfall of approximately 1600 mm. As illustrated in figure 1 the amount can be distributed very unevenly over the area. The drainage system is not able to cope with such events. This is made increasingly difficult by the ongoing subsidence in New Orleans. Due to excessive freeboard in the drainage system in combination with the soft, peaty marshland soils, the land dries out and subsides. The major goals of the UWP are to increase flood safety, provide economic opportunity, and improve quality of life. These goals can be achieved by taking a new approach to water management in New Orleans: by reintroducing water into the city, making use of best management practices as pervious pavement and subsurface storage and introducing multiple lines of flood defense.1 The project area of the UWP includes St. Bernard Parish and the east banks of Orleans and Jefferson Parish.

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Baltzer Science Publishers

2211-0224

Water Governance, 4, (5/6), 2015

Institutional Repository

journal article

(c) 2015 Baltzer Science Publishers