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2012 WORKSHOP

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2011 WORKSHOP ARCHIVE

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2010 WORKSHOP ARCHIVE

Infrastructure V :
Neighborhood Scale Infrastructure

MODERATOR Ray Manning
SPEAKERS Dave Tilotta, Nik Naudts, Jean-Luc Salagnac, Brad Case, Richard Coutts, Bhola Dhume

We need to provide more effective tools, techniques, resources, and information--through applied research and development--to people who experience or respond to natural disasters. After Katrina, we were tasked by the Department of Homeland Security After Katrina to look at resilient housing issues. We put together the resilient home program, which included coming up with tools to help people respond to natural disasters. We performed a gap analysis, combing through science and engineering literature and filling gaps when info existed or doing research to find new information. We know a lot and yet there is a lot we don’t know about how to make resilience a way of life. We need insurance and incentive programs to encourage the construction of natural disaster resilient homes; development of guidelines and/or rating systems for natural disaster resilient products, materials and practices; and improved understanding of cost/benefit and cost/impact relationships. We developed a resilient scoring utility (reScU) using a focus group of 25, and we will put together a program for resilience with platinum, gold, and silver ratings for builders, architects, homeowners, FEMA, EPA, IBHS, academia, insurance representatives, and other stakeholders. The insurance industry will need to lead the way in the use of performance-based criteria instead of prescriptive-based; the implementation of contracts to drive innovation; utilization of "threshold system" adjustable for location of the home, at the individual level; and the assurance of maximum flexibility to allow new technologies to be added to the model, to adapt to changing hazards and conditions. We are beta-testing ReScU in Biloxi, engaging diverse stakeholders that have never talked to one another before, and emphasizing flexibility, innovation, and perseverance. What doesn't work is generic solutions, “one size fits all” rigidity--either top down or bottom up.
-- Dave Tilotta

We were finalists for the Delta City of the Future in Rotterdam last year, where we were asked as architects to come up with a design concept for safe shelters in times of flooding. Here we try to implement our best ideas to a more New Orleans related context. Your short term solutions are mainly a single line defense system. Longer term solutions, multiple lines of defense, include an enlarged wetlands and elevated amphibious housing. As architects we are mainly interested in the worst case scenario when all the other concepts seem to fail. Such architects came up with concept based on a child's drawing. We were also inspired by medieval paintings, such as a multiline defense system provided by a landlord for his people in case of hostile attacks; they were welcome to take shelter in the lord's castle. Like the Superdome, this structure would be used during non-flood times. The Delta Hub has a footprint of one block. The Delta Hub consists of a waterproof substructure with public programs inside such as a hospital, schools, police station, sports centers etc. It is surrounded by a superstructure and a square containing trees or water squares. Also, clustering the delta hubs like 4 city blocks, the evacuation capacity of the shelter could be enlarged. The square could serve as public space when there's a threat of flooding. The shelter has potential for long term use in case of a longstanding event. Delta Hubs stimulate vertical evacuation and avoid traumatic dislocation, and provide a form of evacuation that doesn't have to rely on cars, highways and flyovers.
-- Nik Naudts

The city created the Mitigation Office as a reaction to Katrina, in 2006. FEMA and also the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 requires communities and all states to have a FEMA-approved hazard mitigation plan. At the time Katrina hit, the state had a plan and two cities were working on a plan, New Orleans being one of them, but our plan was not finished. That same law requires the city to update that plan every 5 years. The major accomplishments of the city in terms of mitigation is establishing someone to do it; a framework to make these things happen; and potential projects to benefit from grant programs. Our office mainly works on mitigation projects with funding tied directly to Katrina and Rita such as elevations or reconstruction of houses that were damaged by Katrina and Rita. But our basic elevations standards were set in 1984. We have to take responsibility for the risk of the area we choose to live in. Hazard mitigation has been going on since the city was founded, but the city failed for 200 years to take on the responsibility of doing it in an organized manner.
--Brad Case

Jean-Luc Salagnac: Inaudible

We are involved in a number of projects, including advanced management and representing developers. A non-defensive approach to flood protection may include designing beautiful places to live. A pilot project in Holland shows an institutional shift in thinking with regard to resilience. These 3,000 homes are outside flood defenses, corresponding to about 70,000 potential properties in New Orleans. In 1953 they were subject to tidal flooding, resulting in about 3000 deaths in Holland. The levees in New Orleans cause a dislocation between where you live and your understanding of the water. What we have been doing in Holland is “living with the water.” We are looking at how water can enter the environment in a controlled manner. We design for the consequence, not the probability.
--Richard Coutts

We are responsible to enforce building codes and other ordinances, including flood related ones. These include Chapter 78 of the city code which talks about flood protection. Any structure has to comply with the flood ordinance which mandates that the flow level has to be at the minimum base flood elevation (BFE). also has to comply with ABFE, advised base flood elevation. After Katrina, FEMA required the city to pass an ordinance adopting citywide flood elevations. This was done because they were in the process of making new flood maps and at the time the levees were not certified. The city also has a process by which you can waivers from this requirement, such as historical buildings or buildings in a historical area. When people do renovations, it is not very easy to elevate and it costs a lot of money; sometimes it is not practical; so people may only meet the requirements of the city. If another Katrina happens today, structures are designed for 100 year flood events, not for Katrina. During Katrina, the whole city had 10, 12, and 15 ft of water in the streets. Even new structures are not designed for Katrina floods.
--Bhola Dhume