The Baton Rouge-based Water Institute has signed a memorandum of understanding with Deltares of the Netherlands to pursue solutions in coastal protection and restoration.
The research partners will focus on key areas — from software development and watershed modeling to infrastructure and nature-based solutions that preserve coastlines — as a pathway for supporting Louisiana’s 50-year, $50 billion Coastal Master Plan and for attracting private-sector employers that apply the research to water management projects worldwide.
Louisiana Economic Development targets water management as one of nine key industries that will most stimulate the state’s economy, with the potential for 4,000 new direct jobs on the Water Campus in Baton Rouge and 45,000 new direct and indirect jobs statewide in the water management sector over the next generation.
“Monumental efforts by our Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority recently led to the Legislature’s approval of our 2017 Coastal Master Plan,” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said.
“We’ve reached a critical crossroads for preserving Louisiana’s coastline and our very way of life there. By combining forces with private research institutions, such as The Water Institute of the Gulf and Deltares, this MOU will help us establish a beachhead for mission success. As we work to save hundreds of square miles of Louisiana’s coast, we will attract thousands of jobs across the state and build the Water Campus as a global leader in the water management sector.”
The Water Institute and Deltares will pursue projects in these key areas: strategic water resources planning, coastal dynamics, nature-based solutions to coastal challenges, research for managing watersheds, predictive software tools for modeling across many water issues, and real-time monitoring of levees and control structures.