A Review of How Uncertainties in Management Decisions Are Addressed in Coastal Louisiana Restoration

• Published in: Water (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 11; p. 1528
• Main Authors: Freeman, Angelina M., Pahl, James W., White, Eric D., Langlois, Summer, Lindquist, David C., Raynie, Richard C., Sharp, Leigh Anne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.06.2021
• Subjects: coastal and adaptation planning; Coastal environments; Coastal zone; Dams; Decision making; ecosystem restoration; Environmental economics; Environmental risk; estuaries; Flood control; Floods; Fluvial sediments; Gulf of Mexico; Levees; Management decisions; Management science; Mississippi River Delta; Natural resources; Netherlands; Project management; Project planning; Risk management; Risk reduction; River ecology; Rivers; Sea level; Sea level rise; Sediments; Sediments (Geology); Storms; Uncertainty; Netherlands; Gulf of Mexico; Louisiana; United States > US; North America; Mississippi River; Mississippi River Delta
• ISSN: 2073-4441; 2073-4441
• DOI: 10.3390/w13111528

Louisiana has lost over 4800 km2 of coastal land since 1932, and a large-scale effort to restore coastal Louisiana is underway, guided by Louisiana’s Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast. This paper reviews science-based planning processes to address uncertainties in management decisions, and determine the most effective combination of restoration and flood risk reduction projects to reduce land loss, maintain and restore coastal environments, and sustain communities. The large-scale effort to restore coastal Louisiana is made more challenging by uncertainties in sediment in the Mississippi River, rising sea levels, subsidence, storms, oil and gas activities, flood-control levees, and navigation infrastructure. To inform decision making, CPRA uses structured approaches to incorporate science at all stages of restoration project planning and implementation to: (1) identify alternative management actions, (2) select the management action based on the best available science, and (3) assess performance of the implemented management decisions. Applied science and synthesis initiatives are critical for solving scientific and technical uncertainties in the successive stages of program and project management, from planning, implementation, operations, to monitoring and assessment. The processes developed and lessons learned from planning and implementing restoration in coastal Louisiana are relevant to other vulnerable coastal regions around the globe.