Purpose

Science and decision-making must be connected to culture and community.

The scale of the repairs and adaptations that are called for in guiding documents such as the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan and the city’s Resilient New Orleans strategy, requires entire communities to “buy in.” We believe that only exists where a community plays a meaningful role in defining the future that they’re being asked to invest in. 

While those guiding documents are founded on sound science and planning principles, the notions of “living with water” and “resilience” spelled out in those plans do not yet reflect the full diversity of voices across New Orleans and the region.

Climate adaptation and resilience affects everyone and must involve everyone.

If we are to thrive as a region, we must incorporate diverse, informed community voices and community-driven principles for living with water into a wide range of city systems, policies, and programs. Community members working on rain gardens in their yards should have a seat at the table, alongside resilience planners and policy makers.

While there are nonprofits, public agencies, and institutions conducting outreach in regards to water management and climate adaptation, few provide a role for the citizen in bringing their knowledge of the city, their lived experiences of disasters and recovery, and their diverse perspectives and social networks into the work of resilience planning, at the level of policy, budgets, project designs, and governance.

Through co-creation, community leaders, resilience planners, and city leaders craft shared narratives of resilience and adaptation.

We need a shared understanding of environmental challenges, a shared vision for the future, and clear implementation pathways for realizing that vision, co-created by community leaders, technical experts, and policymakers. Further, we must align planning and design objectives across sectors and issue areas. Together, we can define what “resilience” and “living with water” mean for our region.

Why water leadership?
New Orleans is a water city.

Our river, port, bayous, wetlands, and lakefront are defining features of New Orleans. They -- along with our intricate networks of pipes, culverts, and pumps -- are critical to any understanding of the city’s history and culture. As we adapt in response to the pressures of flooding, subsidence, and climate change, much of the work that we have to do will be in re-framing our relationship to these waters.