The vulnerability of Louisiana to hurricane damage and the value of wetlands for hurricane risk reduction / by James Luke Boutwell.

Thesis(Ph.D.)--Louisiana State University

"December 2016."

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-122).

Coastal
Louisiana
is
annually
threatened
by
coastal
storms.
Population
grown,
wetland
loss,
and
potentially
increasing
storm
frequency
are
likely
to
increase
coastal
vulnerability
to
these
events.
Increasingly,
coastal
management
entities
are
managing
land
resources
to
reduce
the
economic
impact
of
natural
disasters
with
the
use
of
natural
infrastructure.
This
is
true
in
Louisiana
where
the
Louisiana
Coastal
Master
Plan
allocates
billions
of
dollars
to
coastal
restoration
projects,
many
of
which
are
intended
to
mitigate
economic
damages
from
tropical
storms
and
hurricanes.
Despite
this
significant
proposed
investment,
the
risk
reduction
value
provided
by
these
projects
is
not
well
known.
This
analysis
uses
model
simulation
data
and
hurricane
impact
data
to
estimate
the
parish-­‐level
impacts
of
hurricanes
in
coastal
parishes
from
1997-­‐2008.
Using
this
information,
an
expected
damage
function
is
estimated
that
describes
economic
damages
as
a
function
of
population,
relative
wetland
area,
and
storm
intensity.
The
model
is
used
to
estimate
the
annual
vulnerability
of
coastal
parishes
to
hurricane
damage.
Future
scenarios
of
hurricane
regime
change,
wetland
loss,
and
population
growth
are
imposed
to
estimate
the
increase
in
coastal
storm
vulnerability
that
can
be
expected
under
these
scenarios.
The
model
parameters
are
used
to
estimate
the
value
of
coastal
wetlands
as
natural
infrastructure
for
hurricane
risk
reduction,
and
important
trends
in
coastal
wetland
loss
are
highlighted
in
terms
of
their
importance
for
the
future
vulnerability
of
coastal
Louisiana.