Flood Protection & Ecosystem Restoration Professional Development Program

Seventy levee board officials, emergency management administrators, floodplain managers, and representatives of state and federal agencies participated in the pilot Flood Protection & Ecosystem Restoration Professional Development Program, also known as Louisiana Levee School, held Nov. 27-29 in Baton Rouge.

The three-day Levee School was the result of a planning charrette held in early 2007, and is an important step in providing a formalized professional development program to educate levee districts and boards in navigating their statutory and fiduciary responsibilities in flood protection and ecosystem restoration. Of particular focus for the pilot was attracting members of the newly consolidated Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority (East and West).

Topics covered during the program included:

• Flood protection policy and administration;
• Evolution of levee districts;
• Considerations on design, construction & maintenance of flood protection systems;
• Hydrology, inland flooding, natural hazard modeling & climate forecasting;
• Non-structural approaches to managing flood risk and damage.

Current plans are for participants to return annually for one-day continuing education classes. Eventually, organizers hope to open the Levee School to the public.

Presentations given during the workshop are available for download from this site.