1. Water management for flood control in New Orleans: Key factors contributing to institutional inertia.
- Author
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Olsonoski, Allison and Gianoli, Alberto
- Subjects
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FLOOD control , *WATER management , *CLIMATE change , *RESISTANCE to change , *ENVIRONMENTAL infrastructure - Abstract
This paper uncovers the most important factors causing institutional inertia in the water management sector related to flood control in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the United States Gulf Coast region. The gradual modifications in water management systems, structures, and institutions are increasingly associated with the concept of institutional inertia, which serves as a valuable perspective for understanding resistance to change. New Orleans was chosen as a case study due to its history of catastrophic flooding events, vulnerability to climate change, extensive subsidence and reliance on hard infrastructure solutions to water management. Through a process tracing method, this paper illuminates the phenomenon of critical junctures in the period of study for New Orleans (1893-present) to understand their causes, results, and path-dependent legacies. The main findings are that some key contributing factors (i.e. costs, uncertainty, path dependence, power and legitimacy, and complexity) did promote institutional inertia in the New Orleans water management sector related to flood control. In addition, the paper sheds lights on the critical junctures that largely have failed to break the flood resistance paradigm that has dominated New Orleans water management since the system's inception. The application of institutional inertia and critical juncture lenses in New Orleans is novel, making it particularly relevant for water management institutions and flood control practices. • New Orleans illustrates how potential transformative periods have failed to engender paradigmatic and systemic shifts. • All five factors depicted as contributors to institutional inertia exert an influence with different levels of significance. • Some variables (i.e., path dependence) are more strongly related to institutional inertia than others (i.e., uncertainty). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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