Content area
Full Text
Reconstruction and cleanup methods to be used in New Orelans offer an opportunity to address sustainability on a scale that has not been tried before.
FOR MANY REASONS, the city of New Orleans should not be rebuilt in its present location. The combination of subsiding land, rising sea levels resulting from global climate change, and deep shipping channels carved into the Mississippi River delta that funnel storm surges toward the city make rebuilding the city in its present location a dubious solution. But New Orleans is almost certain to be rebuilt in its present location, and proponents of sustainable design and building should be part of the discussion about the rebuilding.
The editors of Environmental Building News have developed a ten-point plan for New Orleans, with the help of our Editorial Advisory Board and other experts in sustainable planning and design. The plan is summarized here:
1. Institute a Sustainable New Orleans planning task force. This task force, comprised of leading national experts in sustainable development and community leaders from the New Orleans area, should develop a series of neighborhood, community, city, and regional plans over the next six to 12 months.
2. Pursue coastal and floodplain restoration as the number-one priority in rebuilding New Orleans. Rebuilding without addressing the fundamental hydrologie forces that influence this region would be folly.
3. Immediately establish Sustainable New Orleans enterprise-zone businesses to salvage and warehouse building materials. Even as the planning gets underway for rebuilding...