Flood Proofing Cities

New Orleans: Problem
Immediately after Katrina—and even before—officials began brainstorming new flood protection infrastructure. Tailor-made for New Orleans, it would replace or bolster the city's existing levees. It's still too soon to know what the plan will be, but in hundreds of television appearances, radio interviews, lectures, op-ed articles, and scientific papers, the experts have weighed in with a wide range of ideas, from aggressively restoring Louisiana's naturally defensive delta and saltwater marshes, to mobile floodgates, to high-tech, electronically sensitive levees.