Using Science and Engineering to Further Coastal Restoration in Louisiana

South Louisiana encompasses internationally significant ecosystems, culturally unique communities, and world centers of shipping, fisheries, and industry. Louisiana's coastal landscape provides a host of benefits, among them, protection from flooding. Barrier islands, healthy marshes, natural ridges adjacent to bayous, and cypress swamps provide a natural buffer during storms by slowing down and reducing incoming surges of water. This function, combined with man-made levees and other flood control measures, has allowed Louisiana's working coast to exist in a hurricane prone area. Extreme rates of land loss compounded with inadequate or non-existent hurricane protection measures now threaten the viability of south Louisiana's communities and infrastructure. The State Master Plan for hurricane protection and ecosystem restoration presents a conceptual vision of a sustainable coast based on the best available science and engineering. The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is responsible for coordinating hurricane protection and coastal restoration initiatives.

As the foundation of implementing this plan the state will work to build its own capacity to reduce key uncertainties and to promote advances in the science, engineering and technology fields critical to the Master Plan through the development of Louisiana Applied Coastal Engineering and Science Program (LACES). Throughout the implementation of the Master Plan, there will be a need for strategic data collection and management, improved forecasting tools, focused research and development, and assessment of program and project effectiveness. These needs may be related to the science and engineering, modeling, socio-economic impacts and changes, implementation, technical methodology, resource constraints, or effectiveness of measures. They may also be related to development and refinement of forecasting tools. Advances in the state of science, engineering and technology must be addressed in order to achieve full and balanced integration of protection and restoration objectives.