PANEL 3 : URBAN ISSUES

Urban Landscape Solutions: Ecosystems, Regenerative Landscaping & Ground Surface Treatment Options that Improve Flood Resilience

Note: Due to technical difficulties, the presentations Tim Duggan, J.O. Evans, Andy Ferrell, Barrett Kennedy, Darryl E. Malek-Wiley and Douglas Meffert were not retained. We apologize for this unfortunate circumstance.

Systems thinking provides a foundation for instituting urban resilience. The urban forest ecosystem, for example, is a cyclic enhancement of: ecosystem services for the city, which maintains the ability for a social system to recover from conflict or disaster, which enhances and is fostered by urban community forestry, which reinforces the urban forest ecosystem. Attributes of community resilience that reflect biological systems include: diversity, self-organization, adaptive learning, ecological variability, ecosystem services, social capital, innovation, overlap in governance and feedbacks. This is fostered by the cycle of civic practice in ecology and environmental education, and results in a desirable social-ecological system. - Don Blancher

The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) Must Go Coalition is comprised of 17 environmental, community and social justice organizations working to restore the degraded wetland ecosystem along the Outlet. The Outlet has contributed to the massive land loss crisis that coastal Louisiana is facing. Seven large-scale initiatives will benefit this ecosystem’s restoration: (1) the Violet Diversion for freshwater and sediment reintroduction to the Central Wetlands and Biloxi Marshes, (2) Restoration of the Central Wetlands along the Forty Arpent levee, (3) Bankline Restoration along the MRGO levee to protect from storm-drive surge and waves, (4) Restoration of the Lake Borgne Land Bridge between Lake Borgne and MRGO, (5) Restoration of the Biloxi Marsh Land Bridge to protect New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish from storm surges, (6) Restoration of the Bayou la Loutre Ridge, and (7) Restoration of the Gossier Barrier Island chain. - Amanda Ransone Moore