River Life Planning Portal

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

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

Posted: September 25, 2012, 12:23 pm

Reclaiming a river: not always easy

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

Posted: September 4, 2012, 2:03 pm

Back to the Future on the Potomac?

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

Posted: September 4, 2012, 1:24 pm

New to the “battle for water” or “world water crisis”? Here’s a good place to start

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

Posted: August 1, 2012, 2:15 pm

MRGO: a tragedy by any measure

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.  

Posted: July 31, 2012, 2:25 pm

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

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.

Posted: July 31, 2012, 12:55 am

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

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

Posted: July 27, 2012, 2:22 pm