Drawing Louisiana's New Map Addressing Land Loss in Coastal Louisiana (2006) / Chapter Skim
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Prior to the storms, the historical and continuing land losses in the coastal regions of Louisiana contributed to widespread concerns regarding the vulnerability of the region to storms and coastal flooding. This report, which focuses on restoration efforts proposed by the U.S.
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Even so, the report is provided at this difficult time in the hope that its advice on restoring and protecting coastal Louisiana can be considered as part of the nation's strategy to rebuild the Gulf Coast and reduce the likelihood of future tragedies associated with hurricanes in the region. EFFORTS TO RESTORE AND PROTECT COASTAL LOUISIANA Coastal wetlands develop within a fine balance of many geomorphologic and coastal ocean processes.
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THE CURRENT STUDY The LCA Study and its envisioned successors are unique in many respects, including geographic scope, pervasiveness of the destructive processes involved, complexity of potential impacts to stakeholders, success of preceding efforts to achieve stakeholder consensus, and documentation of earlier planning and restoration efforts. Indeed, the environmental and social challenges confronting coastal Louisiana in the near and distant future are without precedent in North America.
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The selection of any suite of individual projects in future efforts to restore coastal Louisiana should include a clear effort to maximize the beneficial, synergistic effects of individual projects to minimize or reverse future land loss. Further, because there is a finite availability of water flow and sediment and many of the proposed projects must function for decades to deliver maximum benefit, care should be taken to ensure that implementation of an individual project does not preclude other strategies or elements that are being considered for the future.
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Conflicting stakeholder interests represent one of the greatest barriers to robust coastal restoration efforts in Louisiana. A dominant humanrelated component of land loss is the constraint on the river system imposed by spoil banks and levees, but these features also provide benefits to a range of stakeholders.
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Although some inhabited areas will require relocation in order to carry out some proposed wetland restoration efforts, it will be difficult to persuade those affected by local relative sea level rise to abandon their property without a program of financial compensation and a social plan to maintain the cultural integrity of the affected communities. It is important that decisions involving relocation and compensation following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, or in response to future events, be made in such a manner as to minimize the likelihood of additional relocation or disruption in response to future restoration efforts.
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. However, major questions regarding the future magnitude of forces driving land loss and the acceptance by stakeholders of various large-scale projects appear unaddressed by the S&T and demonstration project programs.
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The LCA Study states that "execution of the LCA [Study] would make significant progress towards achieving and sustaining a coastal ecosystem that can support and protect the environment, economy, and culture of southern Louisiana and thus contribute to the economy and well-being of the nation." The economic analysis provided within the LCA Study and its supporting documents, however, includes only cost-benefit analyses of alternative approaches to meet ecosystem restoration objectives, as is consistent with USACE policy for evaluating projects proposed as National Environmental Restoration efforts.
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Establishing the true, national economic significance of efforts to restore coastal wetlands in Louisiana as proposed in the LCA Study, however, must go beyond simply identifying and characterizing these components and should include an analysis of how specific restoration efforts will preserve or enhance the value of these components (i.e., some restoration efforts may have little influence on the vulnerabilities of specific components of the natural and built environment in coastal Louisiana) and should determine how the national economy would respond to the loss or degradation of components (e.g., what is the capacity for similar components in other regions to compensate for the loss and on what time scales?
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Q: Does the phased approach outlined in the LCA Study provide an adequate basis to start developing a comprehensive coastal restoration plan to achieve the broad goals articulated by Coast 2050? The two major components of the LCA Study, a series of restoration and demonstration projects designed to be implemented over a 10-year time frame and the development of a robust intellectual infrastructure to inform future project design and implementation, are at the heart of the phased approach referred to in the statement of task.
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From page 11... ...
It is important to note that, by definition, the activities proposed within the LCA Study are intended to lay a foundation for more effective and robust efforts to preserve and protect coastal Louisiana. By its own analysis, the LCA Study points out that constructing the five restoration features it proposes would reduce land loss by about 20 percent (from 26.7 km2 per yr [10.3 mi2 per yr]
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Ongoing discussion of long-term response to Katrina and Rita underscores the need to consider restoration and reconstruction as a seamless process that should be informed by a coherent, comprehensive plan that addresses the issues raised in this report. Therefore, efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast and reduce coastal hazards in the area should be integral components of an effective and comprehensive strategy to restore and protect coastal Louisiana wetlands.
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