Coastal Hazards Mitigation: Models for Katrina and Rita Recovery

October 17, 2005 Seminar:

Continuing to address the needs of south Louisiana residents in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program hosted a seminar on reducing risks from coastal hazards on Oct. 17, 2005. This half-day seminar, attended by more than 70 people, complemented the Presidents’ Forum on Meeting Coastal Challenges series and provides the groundwork for more in depth discussion of ideas that will be covered at the next Presidents’ Forum.

Dennis Hwang, an internationally recognized coastal zone management expert and attorney from Hawaii, was the featured seminar speaker. Other panelists providing a Louisiana perspective on coastal mitigation planning included Don Davis, Administrator, Governor’s Applied Coastal Research and Development Program; Rod Emmer, Executive Director, Louisiana Floodplain Management Association; and Al Levron, Terrebonne Parish Director of Public Works.

Hwang, who has been working in the field of coastal zone management for more than 20 years, is the author of the Hawaii Coastal Hazard Mitigation Guidebook. He is also a member of a team working on the recovery and rebuilding of Indonesia following the December 2004 tsunami, and he is working with the government of Indonesia on strategies for recovery and natural hazard mitigation.

Presentations:
(The presentations below are in Adobe PDF format for download.)

• Coastal Hazard Mitigation – Concepts and Strategies for Recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (10.71MB PDF) — Dennis J. Hwang
• Terrebonne Parish (5.5MB PDF) — Al Levron
• Hurricanes Happen: Flood Damage Reduction is Planned (6.4MB PDF) – Rod Emmer [presentation notes (30KB PDF) also available]
• New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain, and Hurricane Katrina (17.3MB PDF) – Don Davis