Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan

A new approach to risk reduction that redefines New Orleans’s water environment for a safer, greener, and more equitable future.

The Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan employs a multi-layered, ground-up approach that is science-based, place-based, and adaptable. It illustrates how the region can live with water rather than fight against it.

A key tenet of the Urban Water Plan is to slow, store & use, and drain only as necessary.

Building on existing infrastructure one step at a time, the long-term vision of the Urban Water Plan is to increase water storage capacity by layering a system of waterways on street grids that supplements the current drainage system.

In the near term, a series of cost-effective, smart retrofits employ sustainable practices. This, in turn, achieves flood and subsidence reductions while enhancing the region’s identity.

Client
Greater New Orelans, Inc.
Year
2013
Awards
APA National Planning Excellence Award for Environmental Planning
National Association of Development Organizations Innovation Award