In an underreported fact, it has rained every day since April 1 in New Orleans this year. The city is struggling to deploy stormwater infrastructure, however, and flooding overwhelmed drainage again this month, on the cusp of hurricane season.
Jim Gabour reports on the sorry state of New Orleans stormwater infrastructure—12 years after Hurricane Katrina and as the height of hurricane season approaches again.
Hundreds of miles of new and reinforced levees have been built since Hurricane Katrina, and the "Army Corps of Engineers built three huge new multi-million-dollar pumps on the Lakefront, so that when the engineers close the floodgates to keep the lake waters out, the pumps can be activated to keep excessive water from overwhelming the system," according to Gabour.
Yet, as spring rains have given way to summer showers and hurricane season arrives, residents and officials are realizing that the city is having trouble draining stormwater when rain falls on the city. Gabour credits some of this problem to the loss of trees after Katrina, but after floods on August 5, 2017, it's become clear that "even if the entire pumping system had been operating at maximum capacity […] the rain would still have overwhelmed the system." The system wasn't operating at full capacity on August 5, however, because "eight of the city’s pumps had been out of service before a drop of rain fell Saturday." In fact "[s]ubsequent investigation found that of 67 pumps on the East Bank of the city, just 58 were 'functional in some form,'" according to Gabour.
The fallout from the stormwater infrastructure operations failures on August 5 led Mayor Mitch Landrieu to fire all the top administrative personnel at the Sewage and Water Board on August 8.
FULL STORY: New Orleans under water: 10 years after Katrina, officials can't get it right
Oregon Passes Exemption to Urban Growth Boundary
Cities have a one-time chance to acquire new land for development in a bid to increase housing supply and affordability.
Where Urban Design Is Headed in 2024
A forecast of likely trends in urban design and architecture.
Savannah: A City of Planning Contrasts
From a human-scales, plaza-anchored grid to suburban sprawl, the oldest planned city in the United States has seen wildly different development patterns.
Washington Tribes Receive Resilience Funding
The 28 grants support projects including relocation efforts as coastal communities face the growing impacts of climate change.
Adaptive Reuse Bills Introduced in California Assembly
The legislation would expand eligibility for economic incentives and let cities loosen regulations to allow for more building conversions.
LA's Top Parks, Ranked
TimeOut just released its list of the top 26 parks in the L.A. area, which is home to some of the best green spaces around.
City of Rochester
Boston Harbor Now
City of Bellevue
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.