City of New Orleans
The Emergency – forum of City Officials
on Rebuilding Infrastructure for a Sustainable Environment
- “ECORISE” –
Policy Objectives, Design Criteria & Best Practice Assessment
Under the Patronage of
The Honorable Mayor of New Orleans
The Honorable Minister of Transportation & Infrastructure of France
The Honorable Minister of Environment & Sustainable Development of France
The Honorable Ambassador of France to the United States
Hotel Omni Royal Orleans
621 St Louis Street (French Quarter)
New Orleans, LA 70140
New Orleans, 7 to 9 March, 2006
Scope –
The proposed program for the Colloquium will address the following issues:
1. Challenges and Assessment of Current Recovery Practices - sharing experiences among local
governments facing the challenges of post disaster recovery, including critical issues such as:
a.
The institutional role and means of the mayoral authority,
b.
Policy objectives and sustainable recovery strategies,
c.
Evaluating the economic, environmental, and societal impacts of alternative solutions
d.
Financing, incentive policies and public-private partnerships
e.
Public information and communication, interaction with the city stakeholders and the Media
f.
Improving emergency management, public safety and social equity, and
g.
Other critical issues for decision making of the city government,
The panel discussions will involve real life observations on the economical and socio-cultural
revitalization of the city and assessment of inter-institutional responsibility sharing of local and state
governments facing the challenges of crisis management
2. Guiding Principles for Establishing Acceptable Level of Disaster Resiliency of the flood control
system, the drainage system, the city infrastructure and its critical urban systems, the housing, that
would be acceptable to the city stakeholders, including local and state governments, civil society,
infrastructure operating agencies, insurance industry and other metropolitan stakeholders, addressing
critical issues such as:
a. Promoting multi-stakeholders’ cooperation for establishing policy objectives, acceptable risk levels,
trade-offs that will be acceptable to the civil society of New Orleans and other affected cities, design
criteria, and performance measures for upgrading the storm protection system and “Rebuilding
Infrastructure for a Sustainable Environment”,
b. Economical, technical and operational feasibility assessment of upgrading the storm protection
system to an acceptable level of disaster resiliency, including discussions on alternative recovery
strategies and their land use implications, operational impacts on the critical urban systems and their
interdependencies, risk assessment models integrating economical, social and environmental impact
assessment, and other operational issues.
c. Case studies and assessment of best practices of reconstruction and recovery - Leveraging
international and local expertise for the assessment of best practices of upgrading and /or rebuilding
the storm protection system, critical city infrastructures and housing, including discussions on the
role and integration of innovative technology solutions and “smart” management systems in the
implementation of selected recovery strategies, and
d. Experts’ recommendations for improving the flood control systems and rebuilding the critical city
infrastructure to an acceptable resiliency level with guiding principles for economic and technical
feasibility assessment of recovery practices;
e. Experts’ Advises to build a viable city that will ensure security and equity to its citizens. The
rebuilding of the housing stock requires honoring the history of the city and preserving the historic
architecture while constructing modern buildings that are durable, safe and affordable. International
experts will assess methodologies and policies to rebuild a sustainable housing stock.
3. Inter-city Emergency Forum of City Officials for Experience Sharing & Learning Alliances - with
the leadership of the Mayor of New Orleans and with the support of the Universities - promoting longterm Government – Industry – University cooperation for:
a. Monitoring the recovery process and developing guiding principles for evaluating its social,
economic, environmental, and operational impacts on the revitalization of the city
neighborhoods and on its sustainable development;
b. Recommending, as appropriate, improvements and best practices to meet recovery policy
objectives and achieve the desired level of infrastructure resiliency;
c. Sharing lesson learned on local and global scales.
This session will also include experience sharing among local governments on strategies for promoting
public awareness and participation, information sharing, and public-private partnerships for selecting
and implementing the most appropriate recovery options