By Malcolm J. Bowman

At some time in the future, New York City will inevitably be struck by an extreme hurricane or winter nor’easter that will lead to significant damage to infrastructure including power, communications, water and sewage systems, hospitals, schools, industries, commercial activities, transportation systems, buildings and homes. Serious flooding and threats to human life will follow. Global warming, rising sea level and a growing population living near the waterfront will increase the risk and worsen the consequences. Among the port cities of the world, New York ranks among the top ten most vulnerable in the size of the population exposed, second only to Miami in the infrastructure assets at risk, and undoubtedly first in terms of the economic damage that would result.

On June 9-10, 2009, 75 scientific, engineering, legal, insurance, policy and environmental experts on climate change and adaptation measures gathered from around the world at Stony Brook University, Manhattan campus at a forum entitled “Connecting Delta Cities” to discuss these issues and all their implications. (more…)

By Stephen Sabludowsky,  reporter from Louisiana, traveling with the US congressional delegation to the Netherlands to study the Dutch integrated water management system.

The Netherlands have discovered that the color of water is “green” and
“gold”.  Now it’s up to Louisiana, New Orleans and the United States to
realize that our waters can be a different blend of red, white and blue
to achieve the same or similar results–as that  amazing country facing
the North Sea.

Last week, I further discovered the incredible importance how water impacts the small country of The Netherlands and America when I attended an  intensive “Study”–led by U.S. Senator, Mary Landrieu (D-La) and Lisa P. Jackson, the new Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.  The “Study” was hosted by the Dutch government. (more…)

By Stephen Sabludowsky,  reporter from Louisiana, traveling with the US congressional delegation to the Netherlands to study the Dutch integrated water management system.

Amsterdam, Netherlands—Day three (Thursday) of Louisiana U. S. Senator Mary Landrieu’s and the Environment Protection Agency’s Lisa P. Jackson’s “Codel” to the Netherlands to study how the European country handles water–was sparked by  with a comment at a press conference that Senator Landrieu plans to introduce  legislation that she hopes will result in reformation of certain practices of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (more…)

By Stephen Sabludowsky,  reporter from Louisiana, traveling with the US congressional delegation to the Netherlands to study the Dutch integrated water management system.

The Netherlands is attempting to spend over one billion Euros on what it considers to be a major problem affecting the world including its own  nation–that of “climate change”.

Dutch have a mindset of ensuring that climate and “water” are its friends rather than its foes, but believe that it shares many of the “lessons learned” and future concerns that many throughout the world have about its near and future destinies.  As a result, the country is on an ambitious project of protecting itself from changes that some might consider to be incremental, but, could possibly be resulting in major devastations such as Hurricane Katrina and Rita.  Due to its intense focus on the issue, the Dutch scientific community has been sharing information with the United States and with Louisiana since it believes it can learn much from the United States and in turn can help many communities throughout the nation better deal with “water-related-issues” that impact so many of us. (more…)

By Robert Pirani

When Henry Hudson sailed from Amsterdam harbor almost exactly 400 years ago (he left April 3rd 1609), he left a country built on water - literally as well as politically. Water is still a foundation for Dutch planning decisions. As I learned on a recent trip sponsored by the Netherlands Water Partnership, they even have a name for this relationship: Living With the Water. With a changing climate and competing waterfront uses posing important challenges on this side of the Atlantic, Living With the Water is a philosophy well worth exploring.

Located on the delta of the Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt rivers, the medieval Netherlands were filled with peat bogs, tidal marshes, and shallow waters. The locals made a practice of re-naturing this landscape. For the Dutch, this meant enclosing the wetlands with dikes, building ditches and windmills to collect the water and pump it back to the sea, and undergoing seasons of special plantings to pull the salt from the soil. On they went, and today, about 27% of the land and 60% of the population are below sea level. (more…)