re: Scientific American: NOLA screwed, new levee system obsolete in 4 years

New Orleans has been and always will be screwed in some form or fashion

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St Marks Square is flooded about 2 months a year now and the Dutch are light years ahead of most everyone else in the living under sea level game.

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I've always been impressed with the Dutch. Especially how they colonized and set up trade in every part of the world.

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is either too hot or cold, this place has earthquakes, this place has tornadoes, this place has hurricanes, this place floods in a heavy rain, this place is too dry to grow crops, and the list goes on.

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Reminds me of people in this country after Katrina. Why don't they just move?

Funny, because since then you have had flooding up north, flooding to West, fires out west, blizzards up north, devastating tornadoes in the middle of the country.

Every part of the country has had natural disasters since Katrina. Why don't they move?

Those have water. Air with some sand at the bottom

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So filling in parts of the North Sea is easier than protecting river delta.

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they reclaimed land. Meaning it was land before. There just didn't fill in ocean to become new land.

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I doubt it’s the soil, must have something to do with the bed rock or lack of it.

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when I, and anyone talking to this level, says soil, it doesn't mean just the dirt at the top.

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Holland addressed their flooding subsequent to the 1953 floods and levee breaches. They secured voter approval to take an active stance on flood control which taxes all. They also took steps to reclaim the Zuider Zee / IJsselmeer creating expansion for land and farms. This state could learn a lot from Dutch engineers, not just for levees

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The state did learn a lot from Holland. We built the Lake Borgne surge barrier, the west side enclosure complex and flood gates on the drainage canals. Those were all ideas that we got from Holland. The only thing that Dutch have that we do not have is that a barrier that completely closes off Holland from the sea during high water events. We need a storm surge barrier similar to the Oosterscheldekering to close off Lake Pontchartrain and then NOLA's protection would be equal to that of Hollands.

The state's coastal master plan also emphasizes living with water instead of fighting against it. Where Louisiana needs to spend more money and effort is restoring the wetlands, but we are hamstrung by the Corp of Engineers and the federal government on that one.

The state's coastal master plan also emphasizes living with water instead of fighting against it. The Dutch plan of giving the river room to move is basically what the US has been doing for 80 years. They are building spillways and identifying areas of their dike system that they can blow up to allow for some land to be flooded but save the system just like the we do in the midwest when the Ms river floods.

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alternative residential construction methods, e.g. floating houses that rise up on the poles anchoring them in place.

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The Dutch are building those because they have run out of room to build in cities like Amsterdam. Those floating houses and their anchoring system would never survive a hurricane. Do you know how I know? I lived on the Dutch island of St. Maarten prior to Hurricane Irma and the island was running out of room for waterfront property so they started building floating bars and restaurants in the lagoon. Some were boats and some were actual floating buildings buildings but they all used the same anchoring system, and Irma ripped them up from their anchoring pools and completely destroyed them. One of my favorite bars was an old fishing boat that used the same anchoring pole system called the Pink Iguana. Here is a picture of it before Irma


and here is a picture of it after Irma


This is a floating concrete dock that used the same anchoring system.



Prior to the storm it was attached to land but Irma's storm surge ripped a section of it up polls and all.

Louisiana has plenty of land. We do not need to spend money on floating houses. We need to spend more money on raising buildings above projected flood levels, maintaining and improving our drainage systems, and improving evacuation routes to get people out of the way.

They didn't go higher with the walls. I laid out part of the lower ninth ward wall. The walls are much more sturdy than before. They're not going anywhere unfortunately there's still Miles of the old walls that are obsolete.

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those are all way more important places to our country than NOLA though. They're worth what it costs to try to save them

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Do you understand how much product passes through New Orleans? Either on it's way to the interior of our country or exported to the rest of the world. I'd say that New Orleans is more important than a southern California beach.