Mayor Mitch Landrieu recently announced that the City of New Orleans’s resilience strategy, Resilient New Orleans , has been awarded the 2016 National Planning Excellence Award for a Best Practice by the American Planning Association (APA).
Released in August 2015, Resilient New Orleans is the City’s planning strategy to make New Orleans more resilient, sustainable and prepared to meet challenges and adapt to change.
Resilient New Orleans was developed with process guidance from 100 Resilient Cities—Pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation (100RC).
The APA selects a tool, project or program exhibiting state-of-the-art planning methods and practices that help create communities of lasting value to receive the Best Practice award recipient yearly.
Recipients of the award demonstrate results and the importance of innovative planning in building and strengthening communities.
The overarching visions of Resilient New Orleans are to embrace the city’s changing environment, connect to opportunity to create a more equitable city and transform city systems to become a more dynamic and prepared city.
Many of the 41 specific actions detailed in the strategy are already underway, including advancing coastal protection and restoration, investing in comprehensive and innovative urban water management, expanding access to safe and affordable housing, and redesigning transit systems to connect people.