NEWSROOM
Hurricane
Hazard Mitigation and Recovery Forum Oct. 17
October
10, 2005
BATON ROUGE
– Continuing to address the needs of south Louisiana residents
in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Louisiana Sea
Grant College Program will host a seminar on reducing risks from
coastal hazards on Monday, Oct. 17. Dennis Hwang, an internationally
recognized coastal zone management expert and attorney from Hawaii,
will be the featured speaker.
The program,
one component in the Presidents’ Forum on Meeting Coastal
Challenges, begins at 8:30 a.m. in the Energy, Coast and the Environment
building auditorium on the Louisiana State University Baton Rouge
campus. The school is located just south of Tiger Stadium, off
the Nicholson Drive Extension. Admission is free, and the seminar
is open to the public. Those planning to attend are asked to RSVP
to lisas@lsu.edu by Friday,
Oct. 14.
Hwang, who
has been working in the field of coastal zone management for more
than 20 years, is the author of the Hawaii Coastal Hazard Mitigation
Guidebook. He is also a member of a team working onthe recovery
and rebuilding of Indonesia following the December 2004 tsunami,
and he is working with thegovernment of Indonesia on strategies
for recovery and natural hazard mitigation.
His Oct.
17 talk at LSU is titled “Coastal Hazards Mitigation: Models
for Katrina and Rita Recovery.” Other panelists providing
a Louisiana perspective on coastal mitigation planning include
Don Davis,Administrator, Governor’s Applied Coastal Research
and Development Program; Rod Emmer, Executive Director, Louisiana
Floodplain Management Association; and Al Levron, Terrebonne Parish
Director of Public Works. A question and answer session will follow
the discussion. As Louisiana continues to pursue long-term coastal
restoration goals, it is only fitting that its universities take
a lead role in addressing the near-term, politically sensitive
and economically challenging implications of the state’s
coastal land loss problem. With that objective in mind, the Louisiana
Sea Grant College Program, LSU Systems Office and LSU Agricultural
Center convened the first Presidents’ Forum on Meeting Coastal
Challenges in January 2005.
At the January
forum, scientists gave a stark assessment of the status of wetland
loss, hurricanevulnerability, subsidence, spatial data and coastal
resource economics to state and local leaders. The second chapter
of the forum, held in June, offered parish and state policymakers
insights from Florida’s recent hurricane experiences and
served as a springboard for discussion about Louisiana’s
vulnerabilities. Information about the Presidents’ Forum
can be found at www.laseagrant.org.
Since its
establishment in 1968, Louisiana Sea Grant has worked to promote
stewardship of the state’s coastal resources through a combination
of research, education and outreach programs critical to the cultural,economic
and environmental health of Louisiana’s coastal zone. Louisiana
Sea Grant, based at LSU, is part of the National Sea Grant Program,
a network of 32 university-based programs in each of the U.S.
coastal andGreat Lakes states and Puerto Rico/U.S. Virgin Islands.
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