sessions 1-10

Tuesday, May 20 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Sessions

• #01 Lessons Learned from a Leading Legislation – CWPPRA’s 35 Year Impact Across the Coast of Louisiana

• #02 The Economic Case for Pursuing Climate Impact: Using market demand to create opportunities for change

• #03 State of Our Seafood: Exploring Solutions for an Industry in Crisis

• #04 Adaptive Management Implementation for Coastal Restoration in Louisiana

• #05 Adapting Louisiana’s Nutrient Management Strategies to Meet Today’s Challenges

• #06 Lessons Inside the Levees: Recent Progress in New Orleans Towards a Thriving Sea-Level City

• #07 Impact and Restoration of Wetlands Degraded by Oil and Gas Canals

• #08 Restoring and Sustaining Louisiana’s Only Inhabited Barrier Island – An Overview of Past, Current, and Future Coastal Restoration Efforts at Grand Isle

• #09 Where and How: The Case for Louisiana Offshore Wind

• #10 Louisiana Coastal Master Plan Modeling: Lessons from Hindcasting and Advances in Risk Modeling

Tuesday, May 20 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Room 286

#01 Lessons Learned from a Leading Legislation – CWPPRA’s 35 Year Impact Across the Coast of Louisiana

Since 1990, the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) has played a vital role in combating coastal land loss in Louisiana. With consistent yearly funding, the CWPPRA Program has approved over 230 restoration and protection projects, developed a world-famous monitoring program, fostered co-production of restoration projects between coastal communities and CWPPRA project managers, and has created a supply of shovel-ready restoration projects. In this session, presenters working within the CWPPRA program will share lessons learned and impacts CWPPRA has had on coastal restoration efforts in Louisiana.

Moderator: Kacie Wright – USGS

Presenters:

• Nicholas McCoy – USDA NRCS

• Brandon Champagne – CPRA

• Katie Percy – USDA NRCS

• Blaise Pezold – Meraux Foundation

• John Foret – Fenstermaker

Organizer: Kacie Wright – USGS

Challenges of Designing Earthen Containment Dike with Peat/Organic Soils Material for a Marsh Creation Project

Nicholas McCoy – USDA NRCS | View Presentation

A comprehensive analysis of the design procedure, considerations, geotechnical investigation of CWPPRA PO-75 Marsh Creation Project, 1,400 -acre, with geotechnical borings showing 5-15 ft of peat and organic clays. The presentation will look at the lessons learned while designing earthen containment dike including boring location, meaning of the borings, stability analysis, marsh creation design procedure and working with contract during early construction activity.

The Role of CWPPRA in Implementing Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plans

Brandon Champagne – CPRA | View Presentation

CWPPRA is the longest-running coastal restoration program in the state of Louisiana, investing roughly two billion dollars and constructing over 200 projects since its inception. The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, through its successive comprehensive coastal master plans, identifies opportunities for restoration across coastal Louisiana that both restore critical habitat and provide protection for inland communities. However, the master plans are largely a prioritization effort, and more funding is needed to implement the projects identified.

Since the creation of the 2012 Coastal Master Plan, CWPPRA has played a significant role in furthering the State’s master plans. Based on sound ecological principles and close collaboration between federal and local partners, CWPPRA has built thousands of acres of marsh, constructed miles of shoreline protection, and restored a variety of habitats from swamps to barrier islands. These programmatic achievements have been a consistent source of progress in achieving major master plan objectives. Similarly, the CPRA’s master plans have provided strategic vision for CWPPRA and other programs so that projects work together synergistically to achieve greater results. These beneficial feedbacks between CWPPRA and CPRA show the importance of collaborating at all scales in all levels of the process, as we work towards a holistic approach to coastal restoration.

13 Years of LA-39 Coastwide Vegetation Planting Project

Katie Percy – USDA NRCS

Coastwide Vegetative Plantings project (LA-39) facilitates a planting program within CWPPRA that routinely plants on a large scale and can rapidly respond following damaging events. NRCS and CPRA devised a schedule to get planting sites from nomination to installation within two years, which is much sorter than a typical CWPPRA project process. LA-39 is currently in its 13th year of its 20-year project life; 34 sites have been planted, and 4 sites are in design.

Sites are nominated in January/February and selection factors are used by a panel to screen nominees. Field evaluations are conducted in March – mid April and final site selections are made by the end of April/early May. Planting concepts are decided by the end of May. NRCS navigates the design process from June through December. Contracts are secured with a planting contractor by April or November based on if installation is in the following fall or spring, respectively. Following installation, CPRA monitors the planting sites by evaluating plant survival and health/growth. Marsh sites are typically monitored for 5 years while tree plantings are monitored longer. Site reports are compiled into LA-39 OM&M reports. Lessons learned are incorporated into future planning.

In general, plantings perform better in hydrologic conditions (i.e. inundation, salinity, wind fetch waves) conducive to plant health. The correct plant species needs to be matched to the conditions. Plantings are an effective, complimentary tool to apply after the cause of vegetative stress at a site has been addressed.

Landowner and Community perspectives of the CWPPRA process

Blaise Pezold – Meraux Foundation

The Meraux Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit located in St. Bernard Parish and has one goal: “to improve the quality of life in St. Bernard Parish.” Most of the parish is wetlands; the foundation owns 26,000 acres of those wetlands, so it makes sense that it has positioned itself as a leader in CWPPRA. It does this in multiple ways; most notably, it hosts the annual CWPPRA Region 1 and 2 Stakeholders meeting in advance of the official RPT meetings. Another role is often as an on-the-ground partner and or land steward on projects with the agencies that make up CWPPRA. The foundation provides local perspective, meeting space, connections to other landowners or community members, bathymetric or site data, mapping of concepts or ideas, and historical maps. Most notably the foundation has partnered on The La Loutre Ridge REstoration and MC (PO-178), The Reggio Marsh Creation, and Hydrological Restoration (BS-43), and the Woodlake Marsh Creation and Terracing. From this close partnership with CWPPRA, the Meraux Foundation has a unique perspective.

Organizing landowners and community members on developing projects for CWPPRA funding consideration

John Foret – Fenstermaker | View Presentation

In the early days of the CWPPRA Program, Regional Meetings involved a day within each of the 4 regions where projects were nominated, input taken from Federal and State attendees, budgets estimated, and projects were selected by the local stakeholders, (i.e. grassroots) and forwarded to the CWPPRA Program for implementation. In 2009, the DNR recommended to the CWPPRA Program that it move to a system of nominating more project ideas than we could fund to give the best ideas the chance to rise to the top. That recommendation was approved and later named the Project Priority List for each region.

It was at this point that it became more apparent that there was a need to keep stakeholders engaged through listening to needs, education on selection criteria, and proposing project features. The Rainey Conservation Alliance was being formed at about the same time as Project Priority Lists to begin looking at regional needs over individual needs and adopted the slogan “what’s good for the neighborhood is good for me”.

Tuesday, May 20 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Room 287

#02 The Economic Case for Pursuing Climate Impact: Using market demand to create opportunities for change

As more businesses incorporate sustainability performance metrics like carbon footprint into business practices and strategic positioning, at a time when regulatory bodies are demanding increased reporting on those metrics, opportunities arise to use market incentives to drive measurable impact, including as to climate. Market-based options provide greater flexibility and efficiency for private companies and investors to deploy capital and innovative technology to achieve impact than do many conventional regulatory programs. Companies, investors, and communities alike face increasing climate-related financial risks. Those include physical risks due to increased extreme weather events and rising sea levels and transition risks as markets shift toward climate-related solutions. Managing risks can reduce costs, but opportunities for new and added market share also abound. Traditional market mechanisms as to carbon footprint include programs like cap-and-trade and carbon pricing, but what other opportunities exist to use market demand as a tool for impact? This panel will make the economic case for tackling climate in Louisiana by discussing the impact of climate related financial risks for businesses, investors, and communities; options to implement market-based incentives to achieve sustainable impacts, including blended financing to de-risk private investment in innovative energy technologies and standardizing measurements, reporting, and verification to promote integrity and predictability; and the latest trends in legal theories showing up in climate-related litigation.

Moderator: Samuel W. (Billy) Plauché – Plauché & Carr LLP

Panelists:

• John Bel Edwards – Fishman Haygood

• Bessie Daschbach – Center for Asset Retirement Accountability; Tulane University

• Megan Terrell – Plauché & Carr LLP

Organizer: Megan Terrell – Plauché & Carr LLP

Tuesday, May 20 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Room 291

#03 State of Our Seafood: Exploring Solutions for an Industry in Crisis

This panel will unite key voices from Louisiana’s seafood industry—including fishermen, restaurateurs, and local organizations—to spotlight innovative outreach and solutions addressing the industry’s ongoing challenges. Panelists will explore why fostering strong consumer connections is essential for preserving the Louisiana fishing community and ensuring continued access to fresh, wild caught seafood. The discussion will focus on impactful initiatives and strategies that bridge the gap between consumers and the seafood industry, driving resilience and long-term sustainability.

Moderator: Fiona Lightbody – CRCL

Panelists:

• Lance Nacio – fisherman, business owner, activist, Louisiana Shrimp Taskforce member

• Katrina Williams – Coastal Community Consulting (CCC)

• Jason Pitre – United Houma Nation, Bayou Rosa Oyster Farm

• Dana Honn – chef/restaurateur, shrimp fest & shrimp aid, seafood educator/advocate Nation, Bayou Rosa Oyster Farm

• Rachel Kimmel – Audubon GULF

• Brynn Comeaux – New Orleans/Louisiana FPAC, Eat Local NOLA, Seafood Working Group

• Emma Lou Reid – documentary filmmaker, Louisiana Shrimp Festival organizer

Organizer: Margaret Crosby- photographer, Louisiana Shrimp Festival organizer, Chef’s Brigade 

Tuesday, May 20 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Room 292

#04 Adaptive Management Implementation for Coastal Restoration in Louisiana

Future environmental stressors on coastal Louisiana are uncertain due to the dynamic processes of the Mississippi River, unpredictable storm events, subsidence, sea level rise, increasing temperatures, and historic management actions, which have altered natural coastal processes. Since the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill in 2010 and subsequent settlement in 2016, a significant portion of restoration funding has come through Natural Resource and Damage Assessment (NRDA), the RESTORE Council, or National Fish and Wildlife Foundation–Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund (NFWF-GEBF). Adaptive management (AM) continually evolves to maximize information sharing, analyze past actions and streamline informed decision-making. Initially focused on project-specific monitoring and evaluation, Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) now leverages several regional monitoring and assessment programs. For over a decade, CPRA has been formalizing AM, beginning with a “framework” report informed by input from other restoration programs around the US, further refined into a Status and Improvement Report with specific recommendations to improve CPRA’s AM program. A Monitoring and Adaptive Management (MAM) Strategy to guide utilization of NRDA MAM fund has been developed. This session will present the broad approach to AM in Louisiana, integration of various regional monitoring data collection efforts that inform adaptive management at a program-level especially in holistic management of sediment, and NOAA’s contribution to implementing LA TIG MAM Strategies.

Moderator: Richard Raynie – USACE

Presenters:

• Syed Khalil – CPRA

• Darin Lee – CPRA

• Erin Kiskadonn – The Water Institute

• Greg Grandy – CPRA

Organizer: Syed Khalil – CPRA

A Holistic Sediment Management Plan for a Sustainable Ecosystem Restoration of a Degrading Delta Plain

Syed Khalil – CPRA | View Presentation

Deciphering complexities of ecosystem degradation anywhere is a daunting task, selecting a suitable restoration strategy thereon is more so since a suggested course of action has to meet the exalted standards of scientific sustainability, financial viability and even social accountability. In addition, its real and/or potential benefits need to be convincing enough to the affected populace.

Entire World is grappling with ecological problems/potential disasters of divergent hues and have been adopting solutions with varying degrees of success commensurate with their resources and limitations. Rapid developmental activity is occurring everywhere with huge risk of damaging ecological balance and creating vulnerable infrastructure.

Understandably managing complex ecosystem environments of coastal Louisiana in which the natural and socio-economic systems are highly integrated is inherently difficult. In addition, deltaic environs are uniquely challenged due to the interdependence and delicate balance of water, land and economic systems and future uncertainties regarding the magnitude and rate of climate change impacts. It should be noted and appreciated that despite an acceptable common template the ecosystem restoration strategies are complex, unique and one of a kind where adaptive management plays a key role in every aspect of execution of such large-scale efforts. The presentation will provide a brief peep into different stages of conceptualization, planning and execution of over two decades of this fascinating project to aid create, conserve, and preserve land, to mitigate the perennial and catastrophic impacts of land loss to millions of people in coastal Louisiana.

The Status and Future of Louisiana’s System-wide Assessment and Monitoring Program: CPRA’s Adaptive Management Implementation Tool for Baseline Data and Monitoring

Darin Lee – CPRA | View Presentation

Adaptive management was first proposed nearly four decades ago as a way to develop more resilient policies for managing ecosystems using techniques that reduce uncertainty. The premise for adaptive management suggests using the best available knowledge to design and implement management plans, while establishing an institutional structure that enables learning from outcomes to adjust and improve decision making. Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority has been adaptively managing activities thru the incorporation of various Adaptive Management principles since the earliest restoration approaches were initiated, however formal adaptation and implementation of a Monitoring and Adaptive Management Program were initiated more recently thru the development of an Adaptive Management Framework for Coastal Louisiana and the initiation of the System-wide Assessment and Monitoring Program as CPRA’s implementation tool for baseline data collection and monitoring activities. System-wide Assessment and Monitoring incorporates a comprehensive network of coastal data collection activities to support the development, implementation and management of the coastal protection and restoration program. The SWAMP framework for data collection presented here focuses on CPRA’s portfolio of interests, and needs to be routinely reassessed to ensure it supports efficient program operations and is responsive to changing coastal conditions. Once SWAMP is fully functional it will support CPRA’s mission by providing support for evaluating project and program performance, data for detecting system change, and information for damage assessments, flood risk management, and modeling.

Addressing data gaps in Louisiana to advance adaptive management and evaluation of post-Deepwater Horizon restoration

Erin Kiskadonn – The Water Institute | View Presentation

The Louisiana Monitoring and Adaptive Management Strategy describes key needs to build an adaptive management and evaluation framework to support the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA) Deepwater Horizon restoration portfolio in Louisiana. The NRDA trustee agencies are actively working to address these needs for a variety of organisms and habitats impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of how NOAA is advancing restoration by filling data needs for marine mammals, sea turtles, fishes and invertebrates, and organisms at the bottom of the food web. Louisiana’s coastal estuaries are known to be some of the most productive in the world for these organisms. While past efforts have made some progress in characterizing the distribution and abundance of these organisms, those efforts were limited in scope, most are now decades old, and our coastal systems has undergone dramatic changes in recent years. These ongoing efforts will produce Specific, Measurable, Achievable, and Time-Bounded objectives that can offer us perspective on the current state of our coastal estuaries and act as targets to guide our restoration efforts. Because adaptive management calls for repeated evaluation against goals and objectives, this work is a critical step for the restoration of these resources in Louisiana. (206)

Connecting the Dots of Lessons Learned from Monitoring and Future Restoration Activities

Greg Grandy – CPRA | View Presentation

Adaptive Management is defined as a systematic process to incorporated new and existing knowledge into management decisions. It is a learning based, iterative process to improve decisions and actions, based on increasing understanding and feedback between learning and subsequent decision making. This session will include a look back at previous Adaptive Management Reviews of coastal restoration projects in coastal Louisiana and subsequent changes to coastal restoration projects.

Coupled with the look-back will be a look-ahead to future efforts to connect the dots from project implementation and monitoring to future restoration activities. These future efforts include development of an easily accessible, interactive lessons learned database. This database will include relevant, lessons learned from project reports and documents. The implementation and evaluation of coastal restoration projects provide meaningful opportunities for feedback on project performance and can document recommendations for improvements and lessons learned that can be used to improve future projects. The results of restoration assessments need to be communicated to managers and lessons learned from assessments and evaluations need to be readily discoverable.

Tuesday, May 20 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Room 290

#05 Adapting Louisiana’s Nutrient Management Strategies to Meet Today’s Challenges

View Presentation

In New Orleans, we understand the the benefits and challenge that come with living near the mouth of a river that drains 41% of the continental United States. Nutrient pollution in particular has been a persistent problem throughout the Mississippi River watershed, and progress through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Mississippi River/Gulf Hypoxia Task Force has been lacking. It’s not just impacting the Gulf of Mexico. This could also be a limiting factor in how we use the river – from emergency flood protection measures to coastal projects. This session will explore emerging nutrient issues in coastal Louisiana and what laws and policies could compel Louisiana and upstream states to meaningfully reduce nutrient loading in the Mississippi River.

Moderator: Haley Gentry – Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law & Policy

Panelists:

• Mark Davis – Tulane Center for Environmental Law

• Brian Lezina – CPRA

• Doug Daigle – Louisiana Hypoxia Working Group

Organizer: Haley Gentry – Tulane Institute on Water Resources Law & Policy

Tuesday, May 20 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Room 289

#06 Lessons Inside the Levees: Recent Progress in New Orleans Towards a Thriving Sea-Level City

For the last two decades, New Orleans has been at the forefront of a national conversation about adapting coastal cities in the face of climate change. A walled city partially below sea level, New Orleans is no stranger to the challenges faced by communities dotting the state’s working coast, and its successes in learning to live with water provide a model for urban adaptation across the region, from Houma to Morgan City to Lake Charles.

Join us for a wide-reaching discussion of New Orleans’ ongoing work to holistically strengthen its resilience. David Waggonner, Founding Principal at Waggonner & Ball, will moderate the discussion and set the stage for New Orleans’ evolving relationship to water. Meagan Williams, Urban Water Program Manager with the City of New Orleans, will detail her office’s work leveraging two decades of lessons in the City to realize increasingly impactful urban water projects. Josh Lewis, Ecologist and Research Associate Professor at the Tulane Bywater Institute, will discuss the interplay between green infrastructure and urban wildlife, highlighting the ecological connections between the city and the coast. Chris Lang, National Academy of Sciences Fellow and former Project Manager with the City of New Orleans, brings both academic and on-the-job experience highlighting connections between waste, drainage, resilience, and environmental justice. And Collin Moosbrugger represents a new generation at Waggonner & Ball, highlighting the firm’s recent planning work with the City to shape a forward-looking resilience vision for the lowlands of Gentilly.

Moderator: David Waggonner – Waggonner & Ball

Presenters:

• Meagan Williams – City of New Orleans Office of Resilience and Sustainability

• Josh Lewis – Tulane University Bywater Institute

• Chris Lang – National Academy of Sciences

• Collin Moosbrugger – Waggonner & Ball

Advancing Best Practices for Water Management Implementation in New Orleans

Meagan Williams – City of New Orleans Office of Resilience and Sustainability

Two decades on from Katrina, New Orleans is embracing green infrastructure as a means of reducing flooding, filtering stormwater, and beautifying neighborhoods. And with the first generation of 21st century urban water projects online, they offer key lessons for improving capacity, designing for maintenance, and enhancing community understanding on future projects. As cities across the Louisiana coast work to bolster their resilience to urban flooding, New Orleans’ successes and challenges highlight key considerations for designing and implementing nature-based solutions across the State. Meagan Williams, P.E., Urban Water Program Manager with New Orleans’ Office of Resilience and Sustainability, will offer case studies from her experience defining, modeling, and executing projects across the city. For example, the Pontilly Neighborhood Stormwater Project, to date the highest-capacity green infrastructure project in the Parish, combines neighborhood bioswales and stormwater parklets with a large bioswale wrapping the edge of the Joe Bartholomew Golf Course, and offers lessons for community-driven stormwater planning and systems-based stormwater planning. Stormwater modeling efforts, including an initiative to build a detailed city-wide model, are aiding in the selection of projects of increasingly high-impact across the City. And nuanced street design improvements to slow and store runoff have advanced beyond pilot projects to appear increasingly in neighborhoods across the city, from Uptown and Bayou St John to St Roch and Gentilly. ected populace.

Green Infrastructure & Urban Ecosystems: From the City to the Coast

Josh Lewis – Tulane University Bywater Institute

Since 2017 Tulane University has partnered with the City of New Orleans to understand the ecological implications of green stormwater infrastructure projects in the city. Modifying the city’s hydrology to a wetter condition through stormwater parks and related interventions impacts habitat availability and vegetative conditions. While these projects aim primarily to reduce the stormwater load on the drainage system during rainfall events, it is also critical to consider how changes in the city’s eco-hydrology may have unintended consequences with regards to plant and animal life. Specifically, hydrological change induced by green stormwater infrastructure could alter the abundance and diversity of important disease vectors like mosquitos, rodents, and birds. It is therefore critical to conduct ongoing maintenance and iterate future designs to promote ecological conditions that enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services while guarding against potential risks to public health. A further, longer-term consideration is the role of sea-level rise in potentially altering groundwater levels and groundwater quality (eg, salinity) in shaping ecological trajectories, and developing scientific monitoring to anticipate and work in-and-through changing environmental conditions to meet public needs.

Linking Urban Water to Community Resilience: Building a Holistic Picture

Chris Lang – National Academy of Sciences

Pollution – industrial, municipal, and otherwise – is deemed a leading risk factor for premature death globally. Municipal infrastructures related to waste, ranging from policies to processes to capital and cultural investments, say a lot about locales’ priorities and preparedness, as well as their reactive or proactive status, in the face of worsening climate-related disasters. The Gulf Coast, which hosts the rainiest cities in the country, remains vulnerable to hurricanes and flash flood events that interact with pre-existing waste and create new disaster debris. Lang explores the numerous environmental and social risks associated with business-as-usual throwaway culture in New Orleans, which is evidenced by trash-filled streets, racialized geographies of pollution, and obstructed drainage. Lang examines contemporary coastal resilience and climate adaptation discourse, which is dominated by calls to restore coastlines, reverse land loss, and transition towards renewable energy, leaving little political will to reconsider our relationship to single use plastics and other wastes that increase regional vulnerability in their excess and mismanagement. Lang argues that, despite its centrality in organizing urban and suburban and industrial development, as well as its importance in the supply chain of fossil fuels, waste is relatively under-examined as a site of intervention in discussions of climate-related resilience. Ultimately, Lang advocates for gulf coast municipalities to include, if not center, waste in the conversation of coastal resilience and disaster preparedness, and consider common-sense waste reduction policies such as single use plastic bag bans, skip the stuff bills, bottle bills, and mandatory composting.

Climate Adaptation & Urban Planning: Case Studies in Long-term Sustainability

Collin Moosbrugger – Waggonner & Ball | View Presentation

Tuesday, May 20 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Room 288

#07 Impact and Restoration of Wetlands Degraded by Oil and Gas Canals

Before construction, oil and gas canals were considered a threat to Louisiana’s coastal environment. However, since being dredged, the canals have been established as a primary causative agent of wetland loss and a significant contributor to Louisiana’s coastal wetland crisis. Many deleterious processes result from canals and their spoil banks, leading to wetland loss or other environmental degradation. Although rare, much can be learned from pioneering canal restoration programs. This session provides an overview of canal impacts and specific case studies of restoration and degradation processes. Understanding the nature of the canal effects and the feasibility of canal-related restoration is imperative for the broader success of coastal restoration in coastal Louisiana.

Moderator: Carlton Dufrechou – Greater New Orleans Expressway Commission

Presenters:

• John Lopez – Delta Science LLC

• Julie Whitbeck – National Park Service

• David Muth – Delta Front LLC (presenting for John Day – LSU)

Three Case Studies of Processes Degrading Wetlands Caused by Canals in Coastal Louisiana

 John Lopez – Delta Science LLC

Pre-construction, oil and gas canals were understood to be a threat to Louisiana’s coastal environment. However, since being dredged, the canals have been established as a primary causative agent of wetland loss and a significant contributor to the coastal wetland crisis. Three examples are given, exemplifying the underlying specific processes leading to wetland impacts due to canals. In Terrebonne Parish, where the Atchafalaya River has riverine influence, wetland loss can be caused by a reduction in overland flow due to increased water and sediment channelization by canals bypassing wetlands. A second example, in Plaquemines Parish near Mardi Gras Pass, illustrates an access canal creating artificial accommodation space, thereby reducing sediment available for wetland development and delta growth. The third example in Barataria Basin demonstrates the process of hydrologic flushing. That is, the process of canals short-circuiting tidal flow down-estuary, leading to sediment depletion in lakes and enhanced shoreline erosion. One result of this process is that many coastal lakes or lagoons in coastal Louisiana have non-unform shoreline retreat rates around the lake’s perimeter because loss is greater where waterways, including canals, intersect the lake shorelines. Hydrologic flushing may be more dominant than the other two examples because it can be active in areas with or without riverine influence, that is, anywhere in coastal Louisiana. These examples represent a subset of the many processes related to canals that degrade wetlands in coastal Louisiana, such as erosion of canal banks, impounding wetlands by spoil banks, etc.

Restoring a deltaic coastal wetland landscape by backfilling canals: what are we learning?

Julie Whitbeck – National Park Service | View Presentation

Located in the upper reaches of the Barataria Basin in the Mississippi River delta, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve’s Barataria Preserve conserves 26,000 acres of deltaic coastal wetlands, from natural levee hardwood forests and cypress swamps on higher ground to predominantly freshwater marshes, spreading toward shallow estuarine lakes. Like most of this region, people have tapped these wetlands for natural resources for generations, one consequence of which is the perforation of the landscape by canals. Canal channels and their spoil banks disrupt wetland connectivity, create barriers to water flow and the movement of resources and biota, tremendously increase edge subject to erosion, and serve as conduits transporting salt water and storm energy from the Gulf of Mexico into the heart of the Preserve’s freshwater wetlands. Pursuing its mandate to restore landscape-scale hydrology and seeking to support ecosystem integrity and function in this era of rapid environmental change, the park has backfilled almost 20 miles of canals since 2001. Drawing on our environmental and ecological outcomes monitoring and incorporating qualitative observations, I highlight key findings, identify lingering questions, and offer a place manager perspective on the value and role of backfilling canals to restore and sustain coastal wetland landscapes.

Deterioration and restoration of coastal wetlands in the Mississippi Delta impacted by oil and gas activities

David Muth – Delta Front LLC (presenting for John Day – LSU)

Oil and gas (O&G) activity has been pervasive in the Mississippi Delta (MRD). The production history and resulting environmental impacts have a predictable life cycle due to direct and cumulative impacts. Produced water makes up about 70% of total liquids. Much wetland loss in the delta is associated with O&G activities, which have contributed to alteration of surface hydrology, induced subsidence, and toxic stress. Canal dredging and spoil placement leads to hydrological change and shallow subsidence. Petroleum production leads to induced subsidence and fault activation. Normal faulting in an extensional geological environment like the MRD causes surface subsidence in the vicinity of the faults. Induced subsidence occurs in two phases especially when production rate is high; compaction of the reservoir itself followed by slow drainage of pore pressure in bounding shales that induces time-delayed subsidence associated with shale compaction. This second phase can continue for decades, resulting in subsidence over much of an oil field that can be greater than surface subsidence due to altered hydrology. About 2 million barrels/day of produced water were discharged into coastal systems and is toxic to estuarine organisms. Spilled oil has lethal and sub-lethal effects on many estuarine organisms. The cumulative effect of alterations in surface hydrology, induced subsidence, and toxins interact such that overall impacts are enhanced. Restoration of coastal wetlands degraded by O&G activities should be informed by these impacts and paid for mainly by the petroleum industry.

Tuesday, May 20 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Room 285

#08 Restoring and Sustaining Louisiana’s Only Inhabited Barrier Island – An Overview of Past, Current, and Future Coastal Restoration Efforts at Grand Isle

Grand Isle is an eight mile long barrier island located in southernmost Jefferson Parish. It’s bound to the west by Caminada Pass and to the east by Barataria Bay Pass, which is the confluence of the Barataria Bay Waterway and the Gulf of Mexico. It’s one of the longest and widest barrier islands in the Barataria Bay Barrier Shoreline – a chain of barrier islands that extends eastward from the Bayou Lafourche to the Mississippi River Delta. The island includes the incorporated town of Grand Isle, Louisiana, which is home to roughly 1000 residents (2020 US Census). The town and island received direct impacts from some of the most severe tropical events to make landfall in Louisiana’s history, including Hurricanes Betsy (1965), Tropical Storm Francis (1998), Hurricanes Isidore (2002), Hurricane Lili (2002), Hurricane Cindy (2005), Hurricane Katrina (2005), Hurricane Rita (2005), Hurricane Gustav (2008), Hurricane Zeta (2020) and most recently Hurricane Ida (2021).

This session will highlight the resilience of the Grand Isle residents and provide details on the struggles associated with post-storm recovery. Additionally, session attendees will learn about the cultural and recreational importance of Grand Isle, and why it’s truly Louisiana Sportsman’s Paradise. The session will also provide a technical summary of the past Coastal Restoration and Protection efforts that have engineered and constructed, and some of the newly proposed measures that are being considered by the USACE and CPRA.

Moderator: Rudy Simoneaux – CPRA

Presenters:

• David Camardelle- Mayor, Town of Grand Isle

• Olivia Creel – CPRA

• TBD – United States Army Corps of Engineers

• Craig Harter – Coast & Harbor Engineering, Inc.

Grand Isle, Louisiana: The Socio-Economic Value of Louisiana’s Only Inhabited Barrier Island

David Camardelle – Mayor, Town of Grand Isle

Grand Isle, Louisiana, which is located in the southern extents of Jefferson Parish is Louisiana’s only inhabited barrier island. Grand Isle’s history, role as a natural defense, and cultural significance provides the justification for the implementation of numerous coastal protection and restoration project to protect these resources. The location of Grand Isle in the Barataria Basin serves as the first line of defense between the Gulf of Mexico and the inland habitat, communities, and flood protection systems in southern Louisiana. Grand Isle was the early home to Native Americans and is now home to approximately 1,000 residents who make their living from the seafood and oil industries. Additionally, over 12,000 tourists visit the island annually to enjoy the recreational opportunities that are provided by the island. In recent years, Grand Isle has been impacted by numerous Hurricanes and disasters that have had a detrimental impact on the community; however, Grand Isle continues to provide the benefits necessary to continue to protect this barrier island.

A review of historical Grand Isle, Louisiana coastal protection efforts to build coastal resilience

Olivia Creel – CPRA | View Presentation

Grand Isle, Louisiana has a long history of engineering the Gulf shoreline to improve coastal resilience, with the USACE’s first projects along the shoreline in the late 1800s, and a federal project was initiated in 1980. From 1950 to 2022, 29 tropical storms and hurricanes of significance have impacted Grand Isle (1 significant storm every 2.4 years), have completed 13 beach and/or dune nourishments placing a total of 8.1 million CY of sand (115,000 CY/yr) and installed 18 coastal structures. In 2008, LA DNR (now CPRA) created a coastal masterplan to provide a path to coastal resilience for the barrier island’s Gulf shoreline. USACE and CPRA have worked to finalize efforts on the federal project and implement many of the components of the masterplan. This includes maintenance and improvements of Caminada Pass and Barataria Pass Jetties, the west end breakwater field, installation of the clay core dune, and west-end dune revetment. As a result of these efforts, by the year 2016, most of the Grand Isle shoreline was in the best condition it had been in the past 70 years. While hurricane Ida’s winds and high water impacted the community, the island’s foundational beach system remained robust and for much of the island prevented direct wave impact damage to Island infrastructure. This presentation will review the history of coastal protection projects along Grand Isle and the protection offered to the island, and preview proposed upcoming refinements to the protection.

Redesigning and Reconstructing the Grand Isle Beach and Clay-Core Dune System

TBD – United States Army Corps of Engineers

A key component to Grand Isle’s resilience is its robust beach and dune system, which is part of a Federal Project known as the Grand Isle and Vicinity Project. The entire project, which consists of an eight mile long beach, a clay-core dune (constructed to elevation 13 ft. NAVD 88), and several reaches of offshore breakwaters, was authorized by multiple pieces of Federal legislation including the Flood Control Acts of 1965 and 1970, the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 1996, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, and the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022. The session will provided details on the USACE design, construction, and operations of this unique system, and how it performed after the near direct landfall of Hurricane Ida in 2021. The presentation will also include an overview of the most recent reconstruction of the entire beach and dune system, which is taking place in 2024.

Modeling the morphological impacts of proposed breakwaters on Grand Isle

Craig Harter – Coast & Harbor Engineering, Inc.

The Grand Isle Breakwaters Analysis and Design Project aims to provide a comprehensive evaluation and recommendation for additional offshore breakwaters to connect the existing western and eastern breakwaters on Grand Isle. To determine the morphological impact of the proposed breakwaters, shoreline response modeling was conducted to assess the impact of the breakwaters on longshore transport over a long period of time under day-to-day conditions using the Gencade model. The shoreline response modeling evaluated a 10-year period of historical wave conditions, including the influence of sediment bypassing over the Caminada Pass from the neighboring Caminada Headlands. Additionally, storm impact modeling was conducted to analyze the reduction of beach sediment volume lost due to extreme events using the XBeach modeling suite. Storm impacts were annualized by simulating a suite of discrete events of varying intensity and numerically integrating the probability-impact curve. It was found that the proposed project preserved 25 acres of beach area on the west side of the island (which is the most vulnerable) under day-to-day conditions and reduced the average annual beach sediment loss by 55,500 cubic yards per year, effectively reducing the annual sediment renourishment requirement by 45%.

Tuesday, May 20 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Room 284

#09 Where and How: The Case for Louisiana Offshore Wind

View Presentation

Offshore wind presents a promising opportunity for Louisiana’s energy future, but where and how these projects are developed is critical. This panel will explore the process of siting offshore wind development areas, focusing on environmental considerations such as marine ecosystems, wildlife impacts, and coastal community concerns. Industry leaders, environmental experts, and policymakers will discuss best practices for advancing offshore wind projects while balancing these needs and delivering emission free energy sources. Join this session to understand how Louisiana can leverage offshore wind in a way that supports both renewable energy goals and coastal resilience.

Moderator: Harry Vorhoff – Plauché & Carr LLP

Presenters:

• Payson Whitney – TRC Companies

• Stacy Ortego – National Wildlife Federation

• Kristen Ampela – National Renewable Energy Laboratory

• Clara Houghteling – National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Organizer: Cameron Poole – Greater New Orleans, Inc.

Tuesday, May 20 | 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Room 283

#10 Louisiana Coastal Master Plan Modeling: Lessons from Hindcasting and Advances in Risk Modeling

Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan models are typically used to understand the current and potential future coastal landscape and risks to wetlands and communities. The first three presentations in this session focus on recent efforts to use these models in a novel way—to take a retrospective look at the last 15 to 20 years through hindcasting. They answer questions like: How well do our vegetation model predictions of species distribution align with CRMS observations over the last decade and a half? How have protection projects reduced storm surge-based flood risk since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita? The final presentation focuses on exploration of an innovative method for making surge and wave modeling across varying landscapes more efficient for Coastal Master Plan project evaluation and risk analysis through the use of machine learning-based surrogate models.

Moderator: Jessica Converse – CPRA

Presenters:

• Zhanxian Wang – Moffatt & Nichol

• Madeline Foster-Martinez – University of New Orleans

• Patrick Kane – The Water Institute

• David Johnson – Purdue University

Organizer: Ashley Cobb – CPRA

CRMS-Era Restoration Hindcast

 Zhanxian Wang – Moffatt & Nichol | View Presentation

CPRA’s Integrated Compartment Model (ICM) suite has been developed and improved to support the 2017 and 2023 Coastal Master Plans. The ICM is used to model proposed projects 50 years into the future to determine their effectiveness in achieving restoration and protection goals and to prioritize investments. There is a recent interest in quantifying the ecosystem benefits of the Louisiana coastal restoration program since the formation of CPRA in 2006, which is also when they began collecting CRMS data. To assess the magnitude of project benefits, model simulations developed an alternate history of coastal Louisiana where restoration projects are not implemented. This hindcast focuses on simulating this alternate history, as well as a simulation of actual history with the ICM to assess restoration project ecosystem/landscape benefits during the CRMS era (2006 – present). All large-scale projects constructed from 2006 through 2023 were examined. Those that impact the coastal landscape and coastal hydrology were identified and then removed from the initial landscape developed for the 2023 Coastal Master Plan, and the ICM-Hydro compartment and link attributes were updated to reflect the pre-project conditions. For the “true history” hindcast, these projects were systematically implemented within the ICM in the proper time sequence. The historic hindcast outputs were compared to observational data to validate the model performance. The alternate “no projects” hindcast was compared against the historic hindcast to quantify the direct and cumulative benefits of the coastal restoration program.

ICM-LAVegMod Model Hindcast/Updates

Madeline Foster-Martinez – University of New Orleans | View Presentation

The Louisiana Vegetation Model (LAVegMod) predicts vegetation distributions across coastal Louisiana in response to changing environmental drivers. These distributions in turn determine the rate of organic matter accretion and habitat suitability for species of interest. A hindcast to explore the model performance is now possible thanks to the availability of over 15 years of Coastwide Reference Monitoring System (CRMS) data along with the vegetation maps used as initial conditions for previous Master Plan models. Two sets of hindcast runs were conducted: one with processes driven by ICM-Hydro output, and another with processes driven by CRMS measurements. Each set contained a run from 2010 to 2014 and from 2015 to 2018, giving three points of comparison (one for 2014 and two for 2018). Each species was mapped from the resultant vegetation distribution (i.e., percent cover of each species in every grid cell) and compared to the satellite-derived vegetation maps. Flotant was removed from this analysis since coastwide data was not available for comparison. Instead, an independent version of LAVegMod was run for CRMS stations with substantial flotant coverage. This talk will present results from the hindcasts, as well as describe updates made to the organic matter accretion rates and forested wetland loss mechanisms.

A Coastwide Risk Hindcast from Hurricanes Katrina & Rita to Present Day

Patrick Kane – The Water Institute | View Presentation

The Louisiana Coastal Master Plan team sought to explore how investments made to build land and restore ecosystems, improve structural risk reduction systems, and support flood risk mitigation through nonstructural risk reduction (elevations, buyouts, etc.) have reduced flood risk across Louisiana’s coast since CPRA was created. To accomplish this goal, The Water Institute used landscape hindcasts discussed earlier in this session, in conjunction with a re-creation of the coast’s structural risk reduction features at the time of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The Coastal Louisiana Risk Assessment (CLARA) model was also reconfigured to represent conditions at the time of Katrina to support an analysis reflective of a scenario where structural risk reduction systems would have only been reconstructed as they were rather than improved into systems such as the present Hurricane Storm Damage Risk Reduction System (HSDRRS). Storm surge and waves, flood depths, and flood consequences (damage and exposure) from this “No Investment” condition were compared to estimates from the 2023 Coastal Master Plan, and the differences provide an estimate of the return on investment for risk reduction projects across coastal Louisiana made or supported by CPRA from 2007-2023. This presentation will summarize the scope of the work, analysis methods, and key findings.

A Surrogate Modeling Approach to Scenario Generators for Estimating Future

David Johnson – Purdue University | View Presentation

Planners managing complex systems often rely on similarly complex models to inform decision processes. For risk-based decision-making, they may need to simulate a large ensemble of hazardous events over long planning horizons matching the long useful lifetime of infrastructure. Under deep uncertainty about sea level rise, population change and other factors, this problem is further compounded by the need to model risk for many potential futures. Model complexity (i.e., computational costs) therefore constrains planners’ ability to effectively account for uncertainty.

In this talk, we describe progress to date in developing machine learning-based surrogate models to emulate storm surge and wave hydrodynamics much more efficiently and on varied landscapes. By training surrogate models on ADCIRC+SWAN simulations from the 2023 Coastal Master Plan, we can predict inundation from synthetic tropical cyclones (TCs) as a function of not only the TC characteristics, but of landscape features (e.g., topography/bathymetry, vegetation), boundary conditions (e.g., sea level), and projects (e.g., implementation of marsh creation projects). We will detail the accuracy of surrogate models at predicting hydrodynamic outcomes and discuss how these models can enable new planning capabilities for the Master Plan. By enlisting the aid of surrogate models, policymakers and stakeholders can more easily comprehend and implement effective coastal protection strategies. This approach not only enhances predictive capabilities but also fosters a deeper understanding of how nature-based solutions can contribute to coastal resilience.