ABSTRACT
More than 16<th>square miles of Louisiana’s coastal land is lost every hour to erosion, and the relative sea level continues to rise. With unique cultural communities and key oil and gas infrastructure at risk, Louisiana has no choice but to financially prioritize flood protection and coastal restoration.
Federal and state agencies rely heavily upon economic feasibility studies to prioritize interventions, including levees, home elevations, property acquisition, river diversions, etc. Where the built landscape has historical significance, every structural decision is controversial. Some projects promise to provide overall benefits but threaten to displace cultural heritage communities. The use of quantitative metrics is a noble attempt to remove politics from environmental policy-making, yet cultural significance is not quantifiable. Bayou denizens, not limited to Cajuns, American Indians, and African Americans, face the threat of cultural genocide due to rigid and uncompromising policies.
The result of year-long fieldwork, this chapter seeks to inform international responses to climate change and hazard mitigation. The case study uses vignettes to explore how cultural heritage is undermined by quantitative decision metrics and individualistic notions of property ownership. Qualitative methodologies for this study incorporate observations in public meetings as well as semi-structured interviews with community members, planners, scientists, and policy-makers.
