A Football Field Lost Every 45 Minutes: Evaluating Local Capacity to Implement Louisiana's Coastal Master Plan

As Louisiana continues to experience substantial coastal wetland loss-at the rate of a football field every 45 min-and multiple disasters, state and federal officials struggle with implementing restoration plans in this highly productive ecosystem. The 2007 Louisiana Comprehensive Master Plan for a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Coastal management 2017-05, Vol.45 (3), p.233-252
Main Author: Knox, Claire Connolly
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Capacity
coastal restoration plan
Coastal zone
Coastal zone management
Coastal zones
comprehensive planning
Disaster management
Disasters
Ecosystems
Environmental restoration
Evaluation
Football
Hazard mitigation
Land use
Land use management
Local government
Louisiana coastal zone
Mitigation
plan evaluation
plan quality
Planning
Quality
Quality assessment
Restoration
Soccer
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Summary:As Louisiana continues to experience substantial coastal wetland loss-at the rate of a football field every 45 min-and multiple disasters, state and federal officials struggle with implementing restoration plans in this highly productive ecosystem. The 2007 Louisiana Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast is the first large-scale restoration plan in the United States to incorporate hazard mitigation. However, there is no mandate for local governments to adhere to this plan. Building upon the planning quality and evaluation literature, this study analyzes comprehensive land use plans in Louisiana's coastal zone to systematically assess the quality of the plans within the context of a non-mandated, $50 billion large-scale state restoration plan. Results indicate a great disparity in plan quality; a majority of the local governments lack the capacity to implement the nonstructural programmatic elements of the state's plan.  The study concludes with a discussion and recommendations for practice and future research.
ISSN:0892-0753
1521-0421
DOI:10.1080/08920753.2017.1303757