NEWSROOM
Freshman
Levee School Class Graduates
December
3, 2007
Flood protection
in Louisiana is on a new course following the completion of the
first session of “Levee School.”
Seventy levee
board officials, emergency management administrators, floodplain
managers and representatives of state and federal agencies completed
the pilot Flood Protection and Ecosystem Restoration Professional
Development Program, held Nov. 27-29 in Baton Rouge. Sponsoring
the Levee School program were the Louisiana Sea Grant College
Program, LSU AgCenter, Department of Transportation and Development
and Department of Natural Resources.
“The
2005 hurricane season demonstrated that levee boards and emergency
management agencies need a variety of tools to help them do their
jobs,” said Charles “Chuck” Wilson, Louisiana
Sea Grant executive director. “Flood control is more than
levees. It’s a complex subject that requires a system-wide
approach to address
it. Louisiana’s universities have the capability to bring
together levee boards and experts in a variety of flood control
fields to build and maintain a premier protection system.”
The three-day
Levee School was the first step in providing a professional development
program to assist public agencies, including levee boards and
districts, in fulfilling their statutory and fiduciary responsibilities
in flood protection and ecosystem restoration. Current plans are
for participants to return annually for one-day continuing education
classes.
“Establishing
opportunities for learning, understanding and ultimate application
of research-based approaches to flood protection and levee management
are important goals of the LSU AgCenter’s Cooperative Extension
Service statewide,” said LSU AgCenter Vice Chancellor Paul
Coreil. “Reaching out to levee board and
commission members with continuing education opportunities like
the ‘Levee School’ initiative should benefit not only
board and commission members but the communities they work hard
to protect.”
Topics covered
during the program included:
- Flood
protection policy and administration
- Evolution
of levee districts
- Structural
flood protection
- Design,
construction and maintenance of flood protection systems
- Hydrology,
inland flooding, natural hazard modeling and climate forecasting
- Non-structural
approaches to managing flood risk and damage
“Better
communication and understanding among agencies, engineers, scientists,
the press and our citizens is essential for good decision-making
processes,” noted Bruce Thompson, a New Orleans businessman
who was part of the Levee School formation team. “Levee
School will provide us with both the common language for that
communication and a 35,000-foot view of how the pieces fit together.”
Eventually,
organizers hope to open Levee School to the public.
For more
information, visit www.laseagrant.org/leveeschool.
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