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| The resilience strategy: what threats will New Orleans be facing in 50 years' time? | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| I’m from the New Orleans area, but in 2005 was living in New York doing neighbourhood redevelopment work. I watched Katrina unfold on television, and after seeing those shocking images, I felt passionately that I needed to come home and use my training to help rebuild the city. | I’m from the New Orleans area, but in 2005 was living in New York doing neighbourhood redevelopment work. I watched Katrina unfold on television, and after seeing those shocking images, I felt passionately that I needed to come home and use my training to help rebuild the city. |
| I didn’t get to New Orleans until about a month later. My brother picked me up and we drove around the city – we saw awful devastation. His house on Jena Street in Uptown, near the Baptist hospital, was flooded. The entire first floor was ruined; mould had begun to eat the walls. The wooden floors were buckled and the smell was putrid. There was debris all over the streets, and there had been many fires in that neighbourhood. | I didn’t get to New Orleans until about a month later. My brother picked me up and we drove around the city – we saw awful devastation. His house on Jena Street in Uptown, near the Baptist hospital, was flooded. The entire first floor was ruined; mould had begun to eat the walls. The wooden floors were buckled and the smell was putrid. There was debris all over the streets, and there had been many fires in that neighbourhood. |
| I began volunteering doing urban planning work, and ended up working in the governor’s recovery office, putting plans together for the rebuilding of the city and surrounding communities that were impacted. I’ve been in New Orleans ever since. | I began volunteering doing urban planning work, and ended up working in the governor’s recovery office, putting plans together for the rebuilding of the city and surrounding communities that were impacted. I’ve been in New Orleans ever since. |
| In November 2014, I was appointed the city’s first chief resilience officer, a role developed by the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative. Today we are launching our “resilience strategy”, in the week that the city marks the 10th anniversary of Katrina. | In November 2014, I was appointed the city’s first chief resilience officer, a role developed by the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative. Today we are launching our “resilience strategy”, in the week that the city marks the 10th anniversary of Katrina. |
| New Orleans is arguably the most vulnerable city in the US, and one of the most vulnerable cities in the world, to climate change and sea-level rise. The attention on those threats is new. I think we’ve done a very good job of rebuilding the city since Katrina, but now we need to exist in the future – that’s been the perspective shift for us. Understanding what 50 years from now looks like; rebuilding the city to withstand what it is that we’re going be faced with in 50 years’ time. | New Orleans is arguably the most vulnerable city in the US, and one of the most vulnerable cities in the world, to climate change and sea-level rise. The attention on those threats is new. I think we’ve done a very good job of rebuilding the city since Katrina, but now we need to exist in the future – that’s been the perspective shift for us. Understanding what 50 years from now looks like; rebuilding the city to withstand what it is that we’re going be faced with in 50 years’ time. |
| For New Orleans that means looking at climate change, sea-level rise models and coastal erosion; figuring out the improvements that have to be made so we have a much more robust flooding infrastructure system. This city is just shy of 300 years old and it has always been a testing place to live, but our future challenges look very different to our past ones. We have to adapt to survive. | For New Orleans that means looking at climate change, sea-level rise models and coastal erosion; figuring out the improvements that have to be made so we have a much more robust flooding infrastructure system. This city is just shy of 300 years old and it has always been a testing place to live, but our future challenges look very different to our past ones. We have to adapt to survive. |
| We are a city that really needs to start to understand that we cannot engineer ourselves out of our environment. Instead of thinking that engineering solutions can solve all the problems, we need to reengineer the city to live with its environmental conditions. | We are a city that really needs to start to understand that we cannot engineer ourselves out of our environment. Instead of thinking that engineering solutions can solve all the problems, we need to reengineer the city to live with its environmental conditions. |
| At its heart my job is about connecting a lot of disparate pieces. Past focus on the surge barrier and flood protection system, education and job creation has produced really well thought-out initiatives, but in many ways they’ve been isolated from one another. My role has been to connect those together and show how interdependent they are. | At its heart my job is about connecting a lot of disparate pieces. Past focus on the surge barrier and flood protection system, education and job creation has produced really well thought-out initiatives, but in many ways they’ve been isolated from one another. My role has been to connect those together and show how interdependent they are. |
| Developing the resilience strategy has been an eight-month process, involving more than 350 individuals. We examined each of 21 challenges, from transportation and social mobility to violence and housing affordability. Three core themes emerged: “adapt to thrive” (we are a city that embraces our changing environment); “connect to opportunity” (we are an equitable city), and “transform city systems” (we are a dynamic and prepared city). | Developing the resilience strategy has been an eight-month process, involving more than 350 individuals. We examined each of 21 challenges, from transportation and social mobility to violence and housing affordability. Three core themes emerged: “adapt to thrive” (we are a city that embraces our changing environment); “connect to opportunity” (we are an equitable city), and “transform city systems” (we are a dynamic and prepared city). |
| When you talk about resilience, you’re really talking about people. New Orleanians have bounced back from adversity time and again over the history of this city, whether it be from hurricanes or the BP oil spill. So a big component of our work must be around awareness and outreach. | When you talk about resilience, you’re really talking about people. New Orleanians have bounced back from adversity time and again over the history of this city, whether it be from hurricanes or the BP oil spill. So a big component of our work must be around awareness and outreach. |
| But just having information saying “this is going to happen” is not helpful. Having the tools available for people to act is very important. For the resilient cities programme, we’ve been working with partners on building solutions that allow people to adapt – creating opportunities for the public sector, the private sector and individual citizens to take steps to prevent or mitigate against conditions we see coming. For example, incentivising property owners to invest in risk reduction schemes such as elevating their homes. | But just having information saying “this is going to happen” is not helpful. Having the tools available for people to act is very important. For the resilient cities programme, we’ve been working with partners on building solutions that allow people to adapt – creating opportunities for the public sector, the private sector and individual citizens to take steps to prevent or mitigate against conditions we see coming. For example, incentivising property owners to invest in risk reduction schemes such as elevating their homes. |
| We want to create a culture of environmental awareness – which also means committing to mitigating the city’s climate impact, for example by looking into setting greenhouse gas emission standards for New Orleans. | We want to create a culture of environmental awareness – which also means committing to mitigating the city’s climate impact, for example by looking into setting greenhouse gas emission standards for New Orleans. |
| The biggest economic impact in this region is from the port system. Oil spills and coastal erosion expose the vulnerability of the petroleum infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico. With coastal erosion, the protection for those pipelines is going away as much as protection for the city itself. So there’s an economic point to protecting the coast as well as an environmental one. | The biggest economic impact in this region is from the port system. Oil spills and coastal erosion expose the vulnerability of the petroleum infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico. With coastal erosion, the protection for those pipelines is going away as much as protection for the city itself. So there’s an economic point to protecting the coast as well as an environmental one. |
| Our future challenges look very different to our past ones. We have to adapt to survive | Our future challenges look very different to our past ones. We have to adapt to survive |
| We’ve been learning from our friends in the Netherlands on how to live with water, and how we can respond to what I call a semi-aquatic environment. There’s the scientific and technical side: how do you build systems to live in these deltaic environments? But then the other side is the education and outreach component: the Dutch start with their children, teaching them how to live within this sort of environment and what it means. We need the natural systems and the engineered systems to be in balance, which is something the Dutch are pretty good at. | We’ve been learning from our friends in the Netherlands on how to live with water, and how we can respond to what I call a semi-aquatic environment. There’s the scientific and technical side: how do you build systems to live in these deltaic environments? But then the other side is the education and outreach component: the Dutch start with their children, teaching them how to live within this sort of environment and what it means. We need the natural systems and the engineered systems to be in balance, which is something the Dutch are pretty good at. |
| Related: Is New Orleans in danger of turning into a modern-day Atlantis? | Related: Is New Orleans in danger of turning into a modern-day Atlantis? |
| Mainstream technological solutions that are not bespoke to New Orleans are not going to help us. We have probably more in common with Rotterdam and Amsterdam than a city like Dallas. The design standards that we build need to reflect this specific environment. | Mainstream technological solutions that are not bespoke to New Orleans are not going to help us. We have probably more in common with Rotterdam and Amsterdam than a city like Dallas. The design standards that we build need to reflect this specific environment. |
| The resilient cities programme has given us a stage to talk about these issues in a way that probably would not have existed before. From Rotterdam to Rome to Melbourne, it’s creating a global network of practitioners that can rely on each other to problem-solve in each other’s cities. | The resilient cities programme has given us a stage to talk about these issues in a way that probably would not have existed before. From Rotterdam to Rome to Melbourne, it’s creating a global network of practitioners that can rely on each other to problem-solve in each other’s cities. |
| The chief resilience officers email, text, phone – we’ve become a close-knit group. There are many, many strategies and ideas being thought about in other parts of the world that are applicable to New Orleans, and vice versa. To underline that sense of global cooperation, officers from Melbourne, Virginia and Mexico City are present today for the launch of our resilience strategy. | The chief resilience officers email, text, phone – we’ve become a close-knit group. There are many, many strategies and ideas being thought about in other parts of the world that are applicable to New Orleans, and vice versa. To underline that sense of global cooperation, officers from Melbourne, Virginia and Mexico City are present today for the launch of our resilience strategy. |
| Jeff Hebert is the executive director of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority and the city’s chief resilience officer | Jeff Hebert is the executive director of the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority and the city’s chief resilience officer |