Resilinet cities New Orlean and Rotterdam

what is new Orleans

A city in the southern USA

Hosting 350,000 people

very prone to environemnetal risks especially linked to climate change

• located close to sea level

• In a region prone to storms and hurricanes

• heavy rainfall

• flooding

• Subsistence of land

• surges

Strong stimulus for resilience

2005 Katrina hurricane

caused massive destruction

flooding → levee failure

$ 125 billion loss

95,000 loss

Resilent strategoes: hard infrastructure

In 2006, at the beginning of the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System

Costing $ 14 Billion investment a 133-mile perimeter was built, surrounding greater new orlean the most prone and valube area, it included:

• levee

• water pumps

• floodwall

Fully completed in 2018

Water management inside

Water also needs to be managed within the area

The Greater New Orleans Urban Water Plan, set in 2013, invested over $140 million into redesigning streets, new canals, and a lot of green infrastructure.

A flagship example of this is the Mirabeau gardeen that can hold up to 10,000 gallons of water

what is rotterdam

Rotterdam is a city in the Netherlands

it’s host almost 700,000 people

80-85% of the city is below sea level

making it very prone to

• storms

• heavy rain

• sea rise

• river flooding

Strategies

multifunctional dykes

large underground rainwater storage

floating infrastructure

Water squares

Water squares

Are public spaces open during dry weather?

Due to their being lower than street level and the surrounding streets’ design, water is directed into these squares, which fill up, becoming temporary reservoirs during heavy rainfall or flooding.

These can store up to 2.4 million litres of water

Undergorund storage

Rotterdam has also included reservoirs under many underground car parkings.

During underground car parking construction, extra room underneath the garage is used as a reservoir.

The parking garage under the museum park can store up to 10 million litres of water

Floating innfrastructure

Rotterdam created a floating pavilion, a construction that can float on water

This construction, while it donst’t protect the city directly, it offers an innovative idea that can potentially be integrated in areas not protected by a waterwall or dykes

room for river program

The city is greatly dependent on national plans as shown by the Maeslant Barrier, but also the room for the river program.

insted of pricing the river into the small channels, infrastructure is built in a way that allows the river to safely overflow.

As constraining the river would lead to potential flooding in areas down the river, potnetially rotterdam

mulifucntional dykes

Dukes built in many areas and used as for roads or infrastructure land, optimising urban layout

Investing in spoong function of city

Rotterdam invests in lots of greenery along pavements, roads, and rooftops

This is also crucial, as it allows the water to be absorbed where it lands

while the city is adapted for large volumes of water with the water squares and underground storage

The rate of water accumulation is also important

During heavy rainfall, canals, sewers and other systems that direct water to the storage agreas my overflow

greenery slows down and releases the water more gradually

Maeslant Barrier

A large man-made barrier that protects a large region of the Netherlands, including rotterdsam from costal flooding