Mapping for Sustainable Resilience in the Gulf Coast of the United States - Abstract

The Gulf Coast of the United States has been battered by major hurricanes in recent years and the results have been devastating.
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf of Mexico. It left 527,000 people homeless, resulted in 1,299 casualties and caused well over $250 billion in property damage. A few weeks later, hurricanes Rita and Wilma also ripped through the area...

The hurricanes wrecked havoc on the region's natural resources, sweeping away more than thirty square miles of Louisiana wetlands and 25% of Mississippi marshes. These losses contributed to a longstanding environmental problem.
Being able to determine which areas are most likely to be impacted by hurricanes, storm surges, flooding, and other natural disasters would assist decision-makers in preparing for and minimizing their impacts.
This paper presents the beta version of a developmental sustainability analysis tool, a set of nested maps, for such purposes. The tool provides guidance for today's rebuilding and tomorrow's land development. It aims to help enhance the region's resilience-a word rooted in the Latin verb resilire, resilience meaning to spring back or rebound-and its sustainability.

(*) This paper was adapted from a chapter by the same authors in Eugenie L. Birch and Susan M. Wachter, editors. 2006: Rebuilding Urban Places After Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.