October 2005
A Bold Plan for New
Orleans
Originally Published in the Current
October 2005 Issue of
Environmental Building News (EBN), Volume 14 ,Number 10. Reprinted
with Permission and All Rights Reserved.
By Alex Wilson and the Editors of
Environmental Building News
It
is easy to see what led to the catastrophe Hurricane Katrina wrought on New
Orleans: a city of a half-million people at an average elevation of six feet
(2 m) below sea level; wetlands that have been disappearing for decades for
lack of replacement silt from the Mississippi River’s annual flooding; a
city that has been sinking as its silt soils compress; levees that are
designed to withstand only Category 3 hurricanes in an age when global
climate change appears to be spawning more catastrophic storms; and years of
inadequate funding to maintain even the existing Category-3-rated levees
that were built to protect the Crescent City.
In the aftermath of the devastating late-August storm, as rescue teams
search for survivors and carry out the grim task of recovering the dead,
discussion is well underway about what to do next in heavily damaged New
Orleans—and nearby cities including Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi. New
Orleans is the first large American city to be devastated by a catastrophic
event since a mammoth earthquake and subsequent fires destroyed much of San
Francisco in 1906, leaving three-quarters of its population homeless, and
before that the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 destroyed a third of that city.
From the San Francisco earthquake we learned to build structures that were
more earthquake-resistant, and we instituted seismic building codes. From
Chicago’s fire we learned to replace wood-frame structures with masonry and
steel, and we instituted rigorous fire codes. What will Katrina teach us?
In many respects, New Orleans should not be rebuilt in its present
location—a lowland bowl situated between a lake and a river channel where
this largest of America’s rivers forms its delta. There are very good
reasons for accepting the reality that the combination of subsiding land,
rising sea levels, and the effect of shipping channels in funneling storm
surges into New Orleans makes long-term survival of the city either very
doubtful or highly expensive. Serious consideration should be given to the
idea of relocating the city to stable land, either somewhat inland from the
coast or farther from the delta where it can be better protected. But
there’s almost no chance of that happening. New Orleans will be rebuilt
where it is. Our nation has learned a lot in its 200-plus years, but we’re
neither that smart nor that bold.
So what can be done in rebuilding New Orleans to make it a better, more
sustainable place? A great deal. The opportunities are exceeded only by the
creativity that exists in the sustainable design community today. We have an
opportunity with New Orleans to put into practice—in a far-reaching and
highly visible manner—a vision infused by the collective wisdom of the green
building movement. If common sense, intelligence, and forethought can
prevail in the ensuing debates about the future of this great city, we will
end up with a model that can be emulated around the world. Our nation can
rebound from the shame of our hapless response to Katrina by demonstrating
to the world a commitment to sustainable development.
In this spirit, we offer the following ten-point plan for moving this dialog
ahead. These suggestions are directed specifically at New Orleans, though
many of the ideas apply as well to other coastal areas damaged by Hurricane
Katrina.
1. Institute a Sustainable New Orleans planning task force. This task
force should be comprised of 20 to 30 of the best minds in sustainable
development, urban planning, and green building, along with at least an
equal number of community leaders of New Orleans and the surrounding region.
Participation and buy-in by residents is critical to the long-term success
of any sustainability initiative in a city or region, and that seems
particularly the case in New Orleans, where too many have been
disenfranchised for too long. This planning process should generate
neighborhood, community, city, and regional plans that address such issues
as housing, employment, government, transit, open space, healthcare,
education, water, sewer, energy, and telecommunications. This task force
should be funded at a level that will permit these outside visionaries and
local participants to take leave of many of their other responsibilities for
an intensive six- to twelve-month period, and the initiative should be
enriched with the best support staff of computer modelers, ecologists,
geologists, building scientists, and engineers that money can buy. This task
force should be established as quickly as possible.
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|
Photo: NASA
Landsat Project Science Office and USGS National Center for EROS
This satellite photo, taken in 2001, shows shipping canals
carved through the marshes and mudflats of the Mississippi River
Delta and sediment carried into the Gulf of Mexico. |
2. Pursue coastal and
floodplain restoration as the number-one priority in rebuilding New Orleans.
As has been widely reported, it doesn’t make economic sense to invest in
rebuilding New Orleans without also addressing the underlying hydrologic
problems that will continue to threaten this area. Sediment deposition needs
to be restored in the Mississippi River Delta, both to replenish wetlands in
the delta that are being lost to erosion and to counteract the subsidence of
land that is occurring in the region. We need to harness nature’s
restorative powers to support human efforts to create a habitable coastal
zone—rather than continuing to work in opposition to the forces of nature.
3. Immediately establish Sustainable New Orleans enterprise-zone
businesses to salvage and warehouse building materials from the destruction
of New Orleans. The materials so salvaged should be cleaned and used in
the rebuilding of the city. These businesses should be cooperatively owned
by the people of New Orleans and should provide employment to those in the
city who most need it—in the process, establishing models for the sorts of
businesses that can ultimately build a vibrant, strong economy for New
Orleans. Such start-up businesses can empower residents and help them emerge
from the cycle of poverty and hardship that have for too long afflicted the
city. Organized deconstruction of the tens of thousands or hundreds of
thousands of buildings that are deemed unlivable should be undertaken.
Temporary housing, food, and infrastructure will be needed to support this
enterprise; the housing can start as tent barracks if necessary. If we can
provide mobile living quarters and infrastructure for 150,000 ground troops
in Iraq 8,000 miles (13,000 km) away, we should be able to do the same in
Louisiana, an hour’s flight from Atlanta.
4. Rebuild a levee system around the city that the water engineers of
Holland will envy. The levees should incorporate redundancy and be
designed to fully withstand a Category 5 hurricane and a storm surge
exceeding that predicted by the most extreme computer models. Where
possible, the levee system should be integrated into a perimeter park for
the city that combines protective functions with recreational amenities that
will help New Orleans lure its dispersed residents back to the city and
attract the new companies and employment that the city so desperately needs
to sustain itself in the long term.
5. Create Sustainable New Orleans overlay zoning for the city to ensure
that the goals of sustainability, safety, and urban vitality will be
followed in the city’s redevelopment. This zoning code should emerge
from the comprehensive planning process outlined in the first
recommendation. It should provide for mixed uses (retail, commercial, and
residential) in urban cores, public transportation, bicycle and pedestrian
pathways, high levels of energy efficiency, reliance on natural cooling
strategies and solar power systems in buildings that can maintain comfort
and provide critical electricity during power outages, and durable building
systems based on a platform of building science. While there is an urgency
to move ahead with the rebuilding of New Orleans, doing it right—in a way
that will maintain and strengthen the character of the city—is paramount.
The end result should not be a gentrified New Orleans, but a better, more
sustainable version of the old New Orleans—a city that supports all segments
of its society while protecting its environment and ensuring its long-term
future.
 |
|
Photo: Gene
Dailey/American Red Cross. Some of the debris left behind by
Hurricane Katrina can be reused in the rebuilding efforts. |
6. Retain and restore
those buildings that can be salvaged. Due to damage from contaminated
water, extensive measures will be required to deal with mold. Gut-rehab will
be required for many of the estimated 80% of the city’s 200,000 homes that
have been damaged and, of course, many homes will not be salvageable.
Building codes should address resistance to non-catastrophic flood
damage—for example, the most flood-prone lower floors of houses should have
no paper-faced drywall, no ductwork, no air handlers, no wall-to-wall
carpeting, and no electrical service boxes. Retaining the character of New
Orleans, which is defined in part by its vernacular architecture and its
diversity, should be a high priority.
7. Mandate or incentivize green building. Along with ensuring that
certain minimum practices are followed in the rebuilding of New Orleans, the
city, state, and federal government, as well as insurance companies and
banks, should require, or offer incentives to encourage the implementation
of, more comprehensive green building practices. Tax credits, zero-interest
loans, density bonuses, grants to support the greenest redevelopment
efforts, and other incentives should be offered to the people and businesses
of New Orleans to support this greener vision of the city. Affordable
housing should be built at least to the Enterprise Foundation Green
Communities standards. Public buildings should be required to achieve LEED®
Gold standards. The U.S. Green Building Council should encourage green
construction by waiving or discounting the registration and certification
fees for all private building projects going through LEED
certification—discussions about doing this are already underway.
8. Work with ecologists and fisheries biologists to create more
sustainable fisheries for the Gulf Coast. The Louisiana coast produces
more seafood than any U.S. location outside of Alaska; as elsewhere, these
fisheries are in decline. The terrible pollution that resulted from
Katrina’s floodwaters will doubtless further damage these fisheries—and
likely extend the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone, which currently covers about
7,000 square miles (18,000 km2)—an area about the size of New Jersey. This
issue must be addressed if the culture of New Orleans is to survive.
9. Clean up the new brownfields of New Orleans. Pollutant-laden
sediment and all manner of toxins will greet the city once it is drained of
its floodwater. The most ecologically responsible means should be used to
detoxify New Orleans, and an ongoing testing program should be implemented
to ensure that New Orleans’s water is safe to drink, its playgrounds are
safe to play on, and its seafood is safe to eat. Indeed, this is an
opportunity to put into practice, on a large scale, such leading-edge
practices as bioremediation, phytoremediation, and ecological restoration.
10. Work with industry to clean up the factories along the Gulf Coast.
There need not be a Cancer Alley along the Gulf Coast, but it will take a
concerted effort by industry, environmentalists, and regulators—and a lot of
money—to bring about the necessary change. In creating a sustainable economy
and ensuring that residents can live healthy lives, however, this blight
simply has to be addressed. Let’s learn from the toxic sludge and silt left
by Katrina and create industrial processes that will not leave a toxic
legacy for our children and grandchildren. The long-term plan for industry
along the Gulf Coast should address both a reduction of toxics and
opportunities for synergies in material and resource flows—concepts of
industrial ecology.
These are not easy tasks. Most involve hard, concerted effort and huge
financial outlays. But these measures—and others that would doubtless emerge
through the process laid out here—are critically important if New Orleans
and the surrounding environs are to emerge from the devastation of Hurricane
Katrina in better shape than before. New Orleans can emerge as a model for
sustainable development, charting a course that other cities around the
country and world can follow. Let's not look back at the rebuilding of New
Orleans as a lost opportunity; let's work together for a future that the
city—and all of America—can be proud of.
– Alex Wilson
Thanks to David Orr, Richard Haut, Kevin Settlemyre, Bruce Wheaton, Dan
Williams, and members of the EBN Editorial Advisory Board for their review
and helpful comments on this editorial.
Alex Wilson is the President of
BuildingGreen, Inc., an independent company committed to providing
accurate, unbiased, and timely information designed to help
building-industry professionals and policy makers improve the environmental
performance, and reduce the adverse impacts, of buildings. They offer
both print and electronic resources to help you design and build
construction projects from a whole-systems perspective and take an
integrated design approach that minimizes ecological impact and maximizes
economic performance.
BuildingGreen, Inc. is the publisher of Environmental Building News,
GreenSpec, BuildingGreen Suite, and Green Building Advisor. Reach Alex Wilson
at: alex@buildinggreen.com.
