Ten years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, engineers, urban designers, landscape architects and city planners are reimagining the city to create sustainable growth in jobs and investment

In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita flooded coastal areas of the US Gulf Coast. Katrina alone flooded up to 80% of New Orleans. Tragically, a total of around 2,000 people lost their lives, while more than 2 million residents were evacuated. The economic impact of the crisis has been estimated at some $150bn (£96bn).

In the words of the then US secretary of homeland security Michael Chertoff, it was “probably the worst catastrophe or set of catastrophes” in US history. A decade on, a new New Orleans is slowly emerging after years of painstaking planning and effort. At the heart of this is an integrated and comprehensive water management system which has the potential to transform the city into America’s leading water urban settlement.

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Source: The Guardian Circular Economy RSS