What is the Multiple Lines of Defense Strategy?
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The Multiple Lines of Defense Strategy is a methodology to design flood control and wetland restoration in coastal Louisiana. The strategy works on the well-founded premise that coastal Louisiana must be protected from hurricane surge by both man-made features, such as levees, and by the natural coastal wetland buffer along the Louisiana coast. Levees alone will not work. Together, a healthy coastal estuary and appropriately designed levees system can sustain Louisiana’s ecology and economy of the coast.
The picture above illustrates the eleven types of lines of defense, such as barrier islands, ridges, levees, floodgates etc. The strategy also includes vital elements such as “non-structural” techniques (i.e. elevating homes above the potential surge levels). The last line of defense is evacuation routes which allow residents to move from harm’s way. All of these features can be depicted on a map allowing true integration by computer modeling.
The Multiple Lines of Defense was developed prior to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and published on the web January 2006. Due to the great impact of these storms, state and federal coastal planning in Louisiana has greatly accelerated. In April 2007, the state released their report titled “Louisiana’s Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast”. In December 2007, the USACE will release a report to Congress for the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Plan (LACPR). Both of these efforts have adopted the Multiple Lines of Defense Strategy.
This website is dedicated to the continued development and application of the Multiple Lines of Defense Strategy. To further this goal, a Multiple Lines of Defense Assessment Team has been organized with coastal scientists and engineers. This team has sent reviews (comments) to the state of Louisiana regarding the state’s Master Plan. In addition, the Assessment Team has recently released a draft report titled “Comprehensive Recommendations Supporting the Use of the Multiple Lines of Defense Strategy to Sustain Coastal Louisiana.” We encourage anyone interested in Louisiana’s future to read this report and send us comments.
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| For the purpose of these recommendations, coastal Louisiana is divided into five planning units, which are the same as those used in the “Louisiana’s Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast” and the Corps of Engineers' LaCPR planning process. |
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