report

Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan

Waggonner & Ball Architects

Greater New Orleans, Inc., 2013

water infrastructure precedent
Comprehensive urban water management precedent; demonstrates how water infrastructure can become public amenity and resilience strategy

The Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan, developed by Waggonner & Ball Architects following Hurricane Katrina, reconceptualized the city’s relationship to water. The core argument: water treated as waste to be pumped away produces the subsidence and flood vulnerability that destroyed the city in 2005. Water slowed, stored, and infiltrated produces ground stability, aquifer recharge, and reduced flood peaks. The plan integrated stormwater management into street design, park systems, and building codes — infrastructure performing hydrological and civic functions simultaneously.

The thesis notes that implementation remains uneven, but the conceptual framework demonstrates that water-sensitive urbanism is technically feasible at metropolitan scale. The riparian corridor modifications in Lahaina’s proposed framework follow principles from the Greater New Orleans plan — widening floodplain benches to accommodate high-water events, creating pool-riffle sequences for habitat diversity, and vegetating native species on banks for erosion control and water filtration.