Planetizen Newswire
Keep up with essential planning news and commentary, delivered to your inbox every Monday and Thursday.
New Techniques for Preventing Levee Breaches
Breached levees are a major concern for riverside cities; New Orleans struggled with their disastrous results after Hurricane Katrina. While shoring and sandbagging have been relied upon in the past, new methods for stopping breaches are emerging.
The Economist reports on some of these new technologies and techniques, including some that use the power of water itself to prevent levee breaches.
"The largest of the new devices is designed to block deep breaches. The Portable Lightweight Ubiquitous Gasket (PLUG) is a sausage-shaped balloon made of polyester and PVC, and fitted with motorised pumps. When dropped into a river (usually by helicopter), PLUG's pumps switch on automatically and begin forcing water into the balloon through a valve. The air thus displaced is expelled through a second valve until the device is 80% full, at which point the pumps shut themselves down."
Full Story:
Published on Wednesday, December 30, 2009 in
- Dollar Stores and Grocery Stores
- Prop 13 on the Ballot in California—Just Not the Prop 13 Everyone's Worried About
- TOD and Zero-Emission Trains: Can You Guess Where the Controversy Is?
- The Leaning Tower of Dallas Is Too Good for This World
- Neighborhood Preference Splits on Partisan Lines
- Developer Sues L.A. After Area Planning Commissioners Reject Multi-Family Project
- Zoning Code Update Makes the Nightly News in Cleveland
- Transit-Friendly Makeover for Downtown Seattle Street
- Lego Neglects Space for Bike Lanes
- The Smart Cities Revolution Happened, but Cities Were Left Out of Loop
- Latest San Francisco Bike Battlefront: Valencia Street
- California's Piecemeal Progress on Housing Production
- Bus Stop Consolidation Improving On-Time Performance in Pittsburgh
- San Antonio's Housing Equity Crisis Traced to Planning Roots
- No Late-Night Tacos in My Backyard
- $11 Billion: Estimated Cost of Replacing the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway With a Tunnel
- New Orleans 'Smart City' Program Would Install Video Cameras in Public
- What Determines the Public Health Outcomes of Cities?
- Controversial Development Site in Cupertino Compounds Legal Controversy
- Report: Transit Ridership Reaches Lowest Levels Since the 1970s
