Louisiana Adaptive Governance Initiative
Following the directives issued in Executive Order JBE 2019-19, which aimed to improve the state’s resilience in the face of changing environmental conditions, Louisiana’s Adaptive Governance Initiative (AGI) was developed to build government capacity and identify ways in which coastal changes will impact the work and responsibilities of various state agencies. Agencies were tasked with assessing what will become vulnerable due to coastal change, and identifying options to adapt to those changes. Throughout the AGI process, resources were created to help agencies integrate resilience into agency operations, including a Vulnerability Assessment template, a Report Card, and a Manual. The Vulnerability Assessment template models how agencies can examine risks affecting their assets and activities. The Report Card aims to help agencies track information and prioritize vulnerabilities. Finally, the Manual encapsulates information from other documents into a guide that assists agencies in implementing resilience through principles, step-by-step instructions, and templates.
The Manual establishes a governance and decision-making framework for coastal resilience in Louisiana and establishes principles for effective adaptive governance. The Manual further illustrates how these principles are implemented throughout different stages of developing resilience, beginning with the assessment of agency vulnerabilities, followed by the development of adaptation actions, and concluding with the institutionalization of resilience across agencies. These stages are further broken down into useful instructional materials such as, “Conducting a Vulnerability Assessment.”
This two-year initiative was led by the Governor’s Office, the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, and the Center for Planning Excellence. At the conclusion of the process, contributors recommended Louisiana take actions like formally establishing the Chief Resilience Officer Role, expanding resilience efforts to include more hazards and areas, adopting FEMA’s Enhanced Hazard Mitigation Plan, integrating resilience criteria into investment decisions, and increasing coordination efforts between agencies and with additional partners.
Publication Date: November 2022
Related Organizations:
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Resource Types:
- Policy analysis/recommendations
States Affected:
Impacts:
- Coastal Flooding
