Text

E-book Louisiana's Response to Extreme Weather : A Coastal State's Adaptation Challenges and Successes

---

Penilaian

---

The coastal areas of Louisiana have been subject to extreme weather ever since the Mississippi River began to create the Delta land 7000+ years ago (Roberts 1997). The extreme weather first impacted the indigenous population that has lived here for millennia and, over the last 300+ years, multi-ethnic immigrants, refugees and enslaved peoples who settled among them (Owens 2015). While inland floods have occurred intermittently over the decades, the two very extreme rain events in the spring and summer of 2016 began to change the framing of the state’s extreme weather experiences: No longer was Louisiana two “states” – the coast subject to extreme weather effects . . . and a safer inland. The image of the state in the eyes of government entities, of inland riverine residents, was changing, and likely observers from outside of the state were also seeing the state differently: It is now a state sub-ject to extreme weather throughout – urban, rural, coastal, and inland watersheds. And that extreme weather is exacerbated by climate change. Weather specialists declared that in Louisiana, both Hurricane Isaac in 2012 and the summer 2016 inland storms were enhanced by it – stalling the storms’ advance and thus generat-ing their extreme precipitation effects (Wiel et al. 2017; Peterson et al. 2016; Kossin 2018). When these inland floods occurred, it became evident to this book’s editor – a researcher and adaptation1 practitioner studying Louisiana flood risk for about 35 years and having begun research on an inland flood of 1983 – that sadly, the whole state had now moved into an extreme weather state category. I believe this change warrants study of Louisiana as a unit: examining and understanding better the level of experience and response embodied within the geographic/political entity of an American state and its government bureaucracies, its communities and citizens. It is hoped that this research will benefit both Louisiana and – as an exemplar – other states, whose extreme weather risk is increasing like Louisiana’s has done or is likely to increase in the near future as the new US Global Change Research Committee Report (Jay et al. 2018) portends. The state of Louisiana’s twenty-first-century flood inundation is represented by nine individual extreme storm maps that were combined to create the compos-ite map (Fig. 1.1). In addition to the 9 storms represented in the composite map, another 14 storms occurred that caused additional flooding, mostly within the same areas as the 9 storms represented (see Appendix 1 for the full list). No such map as the composite in Fig. 1.1 was available for use in this book; it had to be constructed. Not to have state-level composite maps that are kept up to date and readily available for researchers, practitioners, and government officials, especially for states subject to so much extreme weather flooding, is a significant gap of needed information for addressing extreme weather events and adaptation to them. (See Appendix 1 for expanded description of the types of data used for the included maps, the methods of map creation, and the recommendations for enhancing map resources.) The state of Louisiana’s twenty-first-century flood inundation is represented by nine individual extreme storm maps that were combined to create the compos-ite map (Fig. 1.1). In addition to the 9 storms represented in the composite map, another 14 storms occurred that caused additional flooding, mostly within the same areas as the 9 storms represented (see Appendix 1 for the full list). No such map as the composite in Fig. 1.1 was available for use in this book; it had to be constructed. Not to have state-level composite maps that are kept up to date and readily available for researchers, practitioners, and government officials, especially for states subject to so much extreme weather flooding, is a significant gap of needed information for addressing extreme weather events and adaptation to them. (See Appendix 1 for expanded description of the types of data used for the included maps, the methods of map creation, and the recommendations for enhancing map resources.) coastal restoration efforts are not adequately funded (Davis and Boyer 2016), imple-mented, and effective.

---

Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

-

No. Panggil

551.45 LAS l

Penerbit

Switzerland : Springer Nature., 2020

Deskripsi Fisik

364 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9783030272050

Klasifikasi

551.45

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

-

Subjek

Plane Region, Coastal Region

Info Detail Spesifik

-

Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

-

Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

Komentar

---

Anda harus masuk sebelum memberikan komentar