viable or practical response. Permanently elevating a home is costly, inconvenient, and heightens the risk of wind damage during future hurricanes. It also destroys neighbourhood character by disrupting the relationship of house to street and does not foster a culture of social interaction. The BFP recognizes the importance of a street-level front porch and its role in maintaining New Orleans’ tight-knit community culture.
CONCLUSIONS Climate change is an urgent matter and it has become critical to reevaluate humankind’s relationship with water. Flood mitigation strategies for coastal cities world-wide must be reconceived to accommodate the flux in climate. Flexible, multi-layered systems that can adapt to changes in sea level are imperative. Passive systems, which operate both statically and dynamically when required, are needed to accommodate the dynamic relationship between land and water.
The BFP provides a culturally sensitive, technically feasible, economical, sustainable and resilient form of flood protection for residents of the Lower Ninth Ward in post-Katrina New Orleans. This low-impact flood mitigation strategy promotes the restoration of existing shotgun homes through their retrofit with buoyant foundations using cost-effective and sustainable materials. It enables them to float during a flood. The BFP is currently the only strategy that addresses the technical, safety-related, environmental and socio-cultural aspects of flood protection simultaneously.
Classic methods implemented to “control” water have caused further damage to New Orleans. Infrastructure used to prevent flooding has disrupted the city’s natural defense system by inhibiting silt deposition and replenishment of the natural levee system. Groundwater pumping has increased the rate of subsidence. Hurricane Katrina revealed the inadequacy of USACE designed flood protection systems, where artificial systems used to manage water ultimately failed.
The BFP supports the local culture and restoration of the physical habitat. The shotgun house plays an integral part in shaping the distinctive cultures in New Orleans by contributing to the strengthening of tightknit communities and reinforcing the sense of place. The lack of interior privacy created by the absence of separated circulation space, coupled with the utilization of the front porch as a social realm, has fostered a culture of social interaction in the Lower Ninth Ward and other similar New Orleans neighbourhoods.
The importance and necessity of an alternative flood protection system is apparent. The tragic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the inadequacy of the United States federal government’s hurricane protection system. Multiple levee failures, a lack of preparedness, insufficient aid and the slow return of utilities delayed the recovery of New Orleans, particularly the Lower Ninth Ward. This neighbourhood was one of the most severely damaged yet recoverable areas of New Orleans. Many homes were salvageable and could be suitable for retrofit with buoyant foundations. Residents surveyed from the Lower Ninth Ward have expressed a strong desire to return home despite the tragic events of Katrina. It is hoped that implementation of the BFP will convince residents that they can return to their former neighbourhoods in safety. The BFP’s goal is to provide an affordable solution for homeowners to protect their possessions and enable the return of residents after a flood. The current solution promoted by the United States federal government recommends or requires permanent static elevation for homeowners in flood-prone areas. It is not a
Local and international precedents prove the technical feasibility of amphibious foundations. On a local scale at Pointe Coupee Parish, Lakeview and the Lower Ninth Ward, and on global scale in the Netherlands and Bangladesh, different variations of amphibious foundation systems have been constructed in vulnerable flood-prone locations. The retrofitted, pre-manufactured mobile homes that comprise the amphibious fishing camps on Raccourci Old River in Pointe Coupee Parish (some of them in existence for more than 30 years) inspired the basic 290