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Jefferson Parish, Louisiana: Jefferson Parish Watershed Management Plan and Balancing Water Campaign
May 20, 2022
Jefferson Parish, Louisiana lies on a coastal floodplain of the Gulf of Mexico and has more water than land area. The parish is innovating to adapt to rising sea levels and more extreme flooding in the region, and created the Balancing Water Campaign to mitigate flood risk and improve its communities’ resilience. The approach to balancing water levels focuses on rethinking how to manage the impacts of stormwater and land subsidence to live with more water, while increasing natural drainage across the floodplain. The Jefferson Parish Watershed Management Plan was developed as a part of the Balancing Water initiative, to guide local decisionmakers with resilient floodplain management strategies for capital improvements, regulatory revisions, and land use, while emphasizing the use of green infrastructure and low-impact development. In addition, the parish is undertaking other complementary efforts like elevating flood-prone homes with the support of federal grants, and participating in the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System (CRS) program and a Jefferson Parish CRS Users Group to further local flood resilience initiatives.
Resource Category: Planning
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City of Mexico Beach, Florida: Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Code
May 20, 2022
Mexico Beach is a small, coastal community in Bay County, Florida that has begun to adopt resilience measures following climate-enhanced disasters from hurricanes and flooding. Following Hurricane Michael, Mexico Beach amended its zoning regulations to require that new structures be elevated at least a foot and a half higher than the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s base-level flood predictions in both the city’s 100-year and 500-year floodplains. The city also partnered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to implement specific stormwater management projects, such as bioswales and retention projects, on certain streets. Smaller communities, such as in rural areas, and local governments can look to Mexico Beach as an example of how to incorporate resilience measures into zoning ordinances, especially in a post-disaster context.
Resource Category: Planning
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Ascension Parish, Louisiana and St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana: Conservation Planning and Zoning
May 20, 2022
Ascension and St. Tammany Parishes are two parishes or counties in Louisiana that are using planning and zoning to promote floodplain management and conserve green spaces. Each parish is contemplating how to preserve suburban and rural character through planning processes. In addition, each parish has crafted code language that allows it to conserve rural spaces by discouraging sprawl and floodplain development and by downzoning or decreasing developable density outside commercial centers. Ascension Parish Master Land Use Plan In 2019, Ascension released an updated version of its Master Land Use Plan, which was approved by the parish’s Planning Commission.
Resource Category: Planning
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Main Street America and Louisiana Main Street America
May 20, 2022
The Main Street America program offers financial and technical support to help revitalize older and historic downtowns and commercial districts in both rural and urban environments. Many states have Coordinating Programs to implement Main Street America across the country. Louisiana Main Street is Louisiana’s Coordinating Program and works with local governments in the state to preserve and maintain historic districts in Louisiana.
Local governments can look to Main Street America and state-specific programs to enhance local resilience in downtown and commercial districts by investing in municipalities and economies, including by restoring and preserving vacant lots and degraded buildings. Program grants and federal and state historic tax credits can also be used to supplement other types of funding to support overall community revitalization efforts.
Resource Category: Organizations
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Toward a Rainproof NYC
July 2022
During Hurricane Ida, New York City was caught off guard in its inability to handle intense and prolonged rainfall. Media and elected officials could not understand how NYC could deal with these issues. Against this backdrop, in July 2022, Rebuild by Design and One Architecture released a report, “Toward a Rainproof NYC. ” It demonstrates how systematically-implemented green solutions and infrastructure strategies can be less expensive and still beneficial in dealing with significant weather events.
Resource Category: Solutions
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Montgomery County Council Bill 3-22
July 2022
On July 12, 2022, the Montgomery County Council passed Council Bill 3-22, requiring climate assessments for future legislation. The aim is to provide decisionmakers with information on climate implications (emissions and resilience) of decisions they may make. The legislation responded to the Council’s Resolution 18-974 in 2017, which declared a climate emergency and set emissions goals.
Resource Category: Law and Governance
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Greauxing Resilience at Home — Miami-Dade County, Florida: Little River Adaptation Action Area Plan
June 16, 2022
The Little River Adaptation Action Area (AAA) plan was released in January 2022 as part of the process to implement the Miami-Dade County Sea Level Rise Strategy. Adaptation Action Areas are locations that are especially prone to climate impacts like coastal flooding so that they can be prioritized for funding and planning purposes. The Little River AAA is made up of parts of the City of Miami, as well as the Village of El Portal and two unincorporated areas. Identified as one of the communities in that area most susceptible to climate impacts, Miami-Dade County’s Office of Resilience, in collaboration with Florida’s Department of the Department of Environmental Protection and private partners like Savino-Miller Design, developed the adaptation plan to address existing conditions across five sectors by offering distinct adaptation tools that can help mitigate the impacts of climate within each sector. From this plan, local policymakers and planners can take the generalized idea behind AAA — and the practice of making adaptation plans more specific to localities — as well as the specific projects and programs recommended within the document and implement them in their own communities. This case study is one of 24 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond.
Resource Category: Solutions
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Greauxing Resilience at Home — Mecklenburg County, North Carolina: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services, Risk Assessment/Risk Reduction (RARR) Tool
June 16, 2022
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services (CMSWS) is a joint municipal–county stormwater utility that manages and maintains the regulated floodplains within Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, including the City of Charlotte. CMSWS has developed a system for assessing community flood risk through the Mecklenburg County Risk Assessment/Risk Reduction (RARR) Tool for comprehensive mapping, impact analysis, and county-wide floodplain management. This map-based application allows the agency to collect and analyze flood risk data to help identify and reduce flood risk at the parcel level and regionally. RARR is a data-driven framework and set of tools that dynamically assess, evaluate, and ultimately prioritize flood mitigation strategies. The flood risk analysis processes supported by the RARR tool, along with the resulting solutions that CMSWS offers as described in this case study and a companion report, can guide other local jurisdictions in flood resilience planning, and promote climate adaptive policies. This case study is one of 24 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond.
Resource Category: Solutions
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Greauxing Resilience at Home — City of New Orleans, Louisiana: Gentilly Resilience District Projects
June 16, 2022
In 2015, the City of New Orleans released its Resilient New Orleans strategy outlining the city’s vision and plan for building a more equitable, adaptable, and prosperous New Orleans. The strategy outlines various recommendations, which all go towards one of three main goals: adapting to thrive, connecting to opportunity, and transforming city systems. One project featured in Resilient New Orleans is the Mirabeau Water Gardens project. Informed by the design and stormwater management features outlined in the Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan, the Mirabeau Water Gardens project, once completed, will serve as a recreational, environmentally friendly amenity for the community that also reduces flood risk. Specifically, a former convent will be converted into a public green space. This project is part of an overall plan to create the Gentilly Resilience District — a 12-project program designed to make a small neighborhood in New Orleans more resilient to the impacts of climate change and future disaster and flood events. Additional projects a part of the Gentilly Resilience District include the Pontilly Neighborhood Stormwater and the Blue and Green Corridors projects. Throughout the development of the plans and programs relating to the Gentilly Resilience District, local policymakers offered numerous opportunities for community input. Most of the projects not only increase community resilience, but also offer new spaces for the community to gather, educate residents on the benefits associated with green infrastructure, and incorporate safe walking and biking paths throughout the neighborhood. This case study is one of 24 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond.
Resource Category: Solutions
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Greauxing Resilience at Home — City of North Miami, Florida: Good Neighbor Stormwater Park and Repetitive Loss Master Plan
June 16, 2022
The City of North Miami, Florida Good Neighbor Stormwater Park is a public open space with the capacity for local flood prevention, doubling as a stormwater reservoir. A repurposed vacant lot within North Miami’s residential neighborhood of Sunny Acres, this adaptive stormwater green infrastructure is vegetated with an array of native trees and plants, while also acting as a communal space with walking paths and artistic structures that educate the public on flooding hazards. The project was funded in part through the Van Alen Institute’s Keeping Current: Repetitive Loss Properties Grant design competition, won by the City of North Miami, and the landscape architecture firm Dept. for implementation. The Stormwater Park was once considered a repetitive loss property by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), due to repetitive flooding from stormwater and sea-level rise — common across South Florida neighborhoods. As a part of the project, the landscape architects selected to design the park were also asked to put together a plan that could support the replication of this pilot project across the region in the most flood vulnerable communities. Dept. developed a Repetitive Loss Master Plan, which illustrates priority strategies for flood risk reduction and resilient design. Other local decisionmakers of flood-prone communities with vacant, abandoned, deteriorated, or repetitive loss lots can look to North Miami’s example for green infrastructure public space design planning that goes beyond capturing stormwater, and integrates the community’s well-being — such as access to green space — for greater long-term resilience. This case study is one of 24 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond.
Resource Category: Solutions
