INHERENT RESILIENCE IN NEW ORLEANS

Craig E. Colten Dept. of Geography & Anthropology

Community Resilience
Resilience (Wilbanks 2008)
anticipate reduce respond recover
REMEMBER

Inherent Resilience
locally based capacities independent of formal preparations

Jefferson Parish

Lakeview

Af am pop in 1940

Pontchartrain Park

Formal resilience included forecasting, local evacuation, and coordinated government agency responses.

New Orleans Public Library

City schools served as hurricane evacuation shelters.

New Orleans Public Library

Corps of Engineers

Extensive flooding followed Betsys passage in 1965.

Lower 9th Ward

Differential Levee Heights 1965

African Americans

Islenos

Colten 2011

Colten 2011

Shelters and flooding 1965.

Flooding 1965 and African American population 1960.

Colten 2011

(2000)

Greater New Orleans Community Data Center

Flood Footprint 2005

2005 No neighborhood shelters, loss of resilience with only one shelter of last resort.

Zaninetti & Colten, forthcoming

Conclusions
Marginalized communities survived despite inequities, sustained by inherent resilience Structural flood protection and formalized planning did not incorporate inherent resilience capacities and undermined local resilience Many minorities have relocated since 2005 flooding eroding inherent resilience

Acknowledgements
Research assistance Jenny Hay and Alexandra Giancarlo Research funding from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Graphic credits: New Orleans Public Library, LSU Earth Scan Laboratory, Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Colten 2011, Zaninetti and Colten (forthcoming)