A four-day intensive planning event on the future of flood protection in New Orleans will culminate today when experts from the Netherlands and local urban planners present their flood control ideas to city officials.
The meeting, scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. in Tulane University's Kendall Cram Lecture Hall, is open to the public.
The Urban Planning and Water Safety Workshop was developed by the Royal Netherlands Embassy, the American Planning Association, Waggonner & Ball Architects, the Netherlands Water Partnership and the South East Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East.
It brings together a high-level group of 15 Dutch urban designers, landscape architects, engineers, government officials and planners to meet with locals working to develop a flood control strategy for the area.
The aim of the workshop, which ends today, is to develop water management plans for New Orleans, which has developed no substantial plan since Hurricane Katrina's flooding devastated the area in 2005, said Joe Waggonner, the meeting's organizer.
Dutch Ambassador Renee Jones-Bos added that much can be learned from his country's flood protection infrastructure and policies.
"We believe the Dutch experience could be helpful to Louisiana and other regions in America that grapple with water issues," Jones-Bos said. "This workshop enables us to better understand U.S. approaches to planning, and we in turn can demonstrate with concrete examples how we life safely with, and benefit from, water and our delta."
The Netherlands has long been associated with flood control because the country's three large rivers -- the Rhine, Waal and Meuse -- and their tributaries have threatened its citizens since the 13th century.