River Planning Portal

Swim To Work? Not just a fantasy as cities extend riverfront reclamation

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 07:23:38 -0500

http://bit.ly/PtmdiD Cities have worked on riverfront revitalization for decades now, but the “new frontier” is creating access for people to get into the water. Learn more about what Los Angeles and New York are doing. “If they can do it there, they can do it anywhere!” #planning

Reclaiming a river: not always easy

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 09:03:24 -0500

http://bit.ly/QzcxYh People have been working on reclaiming the Los Angeles River for decades now, and the effort got a huge boost recently with the passage of a state law requiring the river be taken into consideration as a river, not just as a flood control channel.

Among other provisions, the state law seeks to simplify the process of getting a permit to access the river.

Not easy turning around “progress”! #planning

Back to the Future on the Potomac?

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 08:24:00 -0500

http://bit.ly/NUD1mU This Atlantic Cities article raises a very provocative point: are urban waterfronts better redeveloped by bringing the city all the way to the water’s edge, animating that edge with pedestrians, shopping, and lots of the vitality and movement that makes good city space?

Or is the more recent trend better, placing linear parks along the water so the resulting greenway buffers contaminated water runoff and the parks and trails serve as magnets to bring people back to a long-forgotten place. #planning

New to the "battle for water" or "world water crisis"? Here's a good place to start

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:15:12 -0500

http://bit.ly/OqOcTn M. Garcia’s Hydro-Logic blog offers good reflective discussions on a variety of important water issues.

MRGO: a tragedy by any measure

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 09:25:56 -0500

http://bit.ly/O56ad3 If you were looking for a “poster child” of misguided Mississippi River and Gulf Coast management, it would be hard to find a better case than the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO “Mr. Go.”) Built in the 1950s-60s heyday of “the control of nature,” the shipping canal/shortcut between New Orleans and the Gulf is widely considered to have done untold damage to a variety of wetlands and other coastal ecosystems. I have personally been told of and shown bayous that have disappeared in short order with the influx of saltwater that MRGO allowed.

But it was an influx of another kind that sealed MRGO’s fate. In August 2005, the waters and winds of Hurricane Katrina barreled down MRGO in a perfect alignment to take aim at New Orleans. Most of the heaviest damage to the city occurred directly or indirectly through this corridor of destruction.

MRGO was closed in 2009, and the Corps of Engineers has come up with a remediation plan to restore environmental damage attributable to the project. But, controversial to the last, there are deeply-based differences of opinion on how to pay for these restoration projects. The article cited has colorful viewpoints, and more are to be found at http://bit.ly/N9rSbi.

Does Texas' future include sufficient water? Maybe, maybe not

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 19:55:01 -0500

http://bit.ly/ODzF5r Everything’s bigger down in Texas, including the size of their water problem if conservation measures aren’t enacted in the very near future. Learn more, with a useful glossary and backgrounder, at this article from the Texas Electrical Cooperatives.

New Orleans mayor: city and region are "canaries in the coal mine" for infrastructure, climate

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 09:22:30 -0500

http://bit.ly/O6DVfc This may be the best reason to rebuild New Orleans that I’ve heard yet. Some may remember that people questioned the city’s future after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005. But Mayor Mitch Landrieu warns that, like the canaries whose faded singing warned 19th century coal miners that their oxygen was running low, the state of water and transportation infrastructure in New Orleans marks the shape of things to come. #planning

Singapore park turns channelized river back into "natural" form

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 09:29:26 -0500

http://bit.ly/N2VLdi For many of us, this project is roughly equivalent to putting toothpaste back into the tube. Herbert Dreiseitl is a great designer, though, so if anyone can do this, he’s probably the one. Still, it will be important to test and track ecological function in this “re-natured” river. #planning

How the Mississippi Delta might be rebuilt

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 20:16:25 -0500

http://nyti.ms/MWIB2k An unexpected, but perhaps not surprising impact of opening diversion structures during the 2011 Mississippi Delta floods is that the sediment carried out of the main channel could be important to land-building in the region. Scientific studies begin to describe the impacts more closely. #planning

Low water forces Mississippi River shippers to make adjustments

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 09:29:33 -0500

http://bit.ly/PBwKuO On the Mississippi, 2012 is shaping up to be the opposite of 2011, hydrologically speaking. Record floods followed by near-record low water: care to remind me what “normal” is? #planning

The EPA and urban stormwater: the basics

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:35:33 -0500

http://bit.ly/OajpVs This blog post, by blogger M. Garcia, offers a good, succinct overview of urban stormwater management and a beginning insight on governance and policy. Excellent starter reading! #planning

Dry southeast US begins to formulate water policy

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 09:21:27 -0500

http://bit.ly/OWEvvY Water policy in Georgia continues to evolve under drought conditions, water sharing controversy on the Chattahoochee-Apalachicola-Flint system. Lesson here for places like Minnesota that think of themselves as “water rich”? #planning

Gulf Coast and Mississippi River closely connected: review State of the Coast 2012

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 09:19:43 -0500

http://bit.ly/MUbE8A State of the Coast conference summarized. Louisiana Gulf Coast is integrally connected to the Mississippi River, from the headwaters on down, but particularly here in the “farm belt.” #planning

National flood policy reform: at last some good news from Congress!

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 09:25:01 -0500

http://bit.ly/LYxJle As reported by American Rivers, new national flood policy reform should result in less development in the floodplains of the nation’s rivers. Learn more, and read about comprehensive flood plan for California’s Central Valley. #planning

Largest floodplain restoration in the US--where is it?

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 09:23:38 -0500

http://bit.ly/s5twho Conservation Fund and other partners engaged in largest floodplain restoration project in the US, on the Upper Ouachita, a tributary of the Lower Mississippi in Louisiana. #planning

RESTORE Act ensures funding for Gulf Coast

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 09:30:49 -0500

http://lat.ms/MtMM9N Passed on June 29 as part of the Transportation Act, the RESTORE Act calls for 80% of the damages to be paid by BP as a consequence of the 2010 Gulf oil spill to be used for restoration by the Gulf Coast states.

A huge win for restoration on the Gulf Coast. #planning

Day 1 State of the Coast conference

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 08:13:35 -0500

http://bit.ly/LbDX0s "State of the Coast" sounds like a wonderful conference idea, and a forum for important ideas such as those discussed here. Who would host “State of the River” for the Mississippi"? #planning

USDA announces water quality improvement projects

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 09:20:49 -0500

http://1.usa.gov/Mbexmo How do you improve water quality on a watershed as big as the Mississippi? One way is through one great project at a time. The USDA recently announced another 23 projects that will advance the goals of USDA’s Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative (MRBI) by reducing sediment and nutrient runoff into the big river’s tributaries. #planning

Mississippi River sediment to build Gulf Coast?

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 08:32:00 -0500

http://bit.ly/MZGTNd The answer to this question would appear to be a “no brainer,” but as this article shows, the solutions are often more complex than they would seem. Not every sediment deposition spot is created equally! #planning

How many river coordination efforts do we need?

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 11:16:40 -0500

http://bit.ly/NKNCPR Hard to tell what the right answer is, but at least someone has asked the question! #planning