Lessons Learned from a Comprehensive Performance Evaluation of the New Orleans Hurricane Protection System

Lewis E. Link, Ph.D., Director, IPET

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

University of Maryland

The Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET) was charged with determining the facts about the performance of the New Orleans and Vicinity Hurricane Protection System and assisting in their application to the repair and restoration of hurricane protection for the future. The IPET, composed of over 300 individuals from 25 universities, 23 companies and 8 government agencies, conducted in depth analyses on the behavior during Katrina of the individual structures and features of the HPS, and developed a first ever system wide risk and reliability analysis of the entire system. This work is presented in a seminal 9 Volume, 7000 plus page report available at https://IPET.WES.Army.mil.

The results of this work include holistic insights on what happened from a scientific and engineering perspective, including the implications of knowledge about land and water resources. The IPET reports provide specific lessons learned about the character and behavior of hurricanes, the dynamic and variable nature of the storm surge and wave conditions in complex natural environments, the behavior of different types of structures and structure designs in varying geological conditions, the impact of resilience and redundancy in providing protection, the multi-faceted of consequences of flooding and the trials and tribulations of creating a comprehensive picture of system wide risk for the future.

This keynote address will provide an overview of the big picture of the IPET effort as well as drilling down to a more detailed look at the extensive ramifications of soil and geotechnical aspects of the region, their relationship to the water regime and to the performance of the HPS. Specific attention will be paid to the knowledge gaps that led to poor performance and that are a key to more effective planning, design and construction of hurricane risk reduction measures in the future as well as the effective assessment of  existing protective structures that face hurricane and other hazards around the nation.