Environmental Sustainability-Wetlands
The restoration of New Orleans and the rest of the Mississippi Delta after Hurricane Katrina can
become another disaster waiting to happen, or it can become a model of sustainable development
(Costanza et al. p. 465). The sea level is rising, precipitation patterns are changing, intensity of
hurricanes are getting more and more intense, energy costs are started to rise and the city is
continuing to sink. Currently it would seem that dimply rebuilding the levees and the city behind
it is their direction, but rebuilding is a huge opportunity to put sustainability into practice and
improve the quality of life for all citizens. If New Orleans can develop and work toward a new
plan, the city could meet goals of sustainability, uniqueness, desirability and a true model of how
to rebuild to people around the globe.
New Orleans being devastated by a major hurricane was both predictable and predicted.
The immediate reaction to massive flooding caused by the levee overtopping and breaching
showed an apparent lack of disaster planning, the hurricane damage itself could only have been
prevented by actions taken in advance. The very technology that was created to protect New
Orleans from flooding has backfired. The levees that ring the city have led to the rapid decay of
wetlands during the past century, removing a crucial buffer that once protected the area from
hurricanes.