Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2008LA56B

2008 Louisiana Water Symposia

Institute: Louisiana
Year Established: 2008 Start Date: 2008-03-01 End Date: 2011-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $18,410 Total Non-Federal Funds: $36,822

Principal Investigators: John Pardue, Nedra Korevec

Abstract: The Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute is making a concerted effort in the 2008/2009 funding cycle to improve and expand outreach efforts to increase visibility in the Louisiana water/environmental community. In Louisiana, limited opportunities exist for exchange between university water scientists, state and federal agencies over water issues. A state water conference or summit has not been organized and only the state environmental agency, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, sponsors a scientific/policy conference on environmental issues, some of which involve water. After discussions with the advisory board, the Institute thought this could best be accomplished by sponsoring 1 day symposia/workshops to focus on a specific science/engineering issue important to the state. This builds upon our successful Storm Surge and Vegetation workshop in Spring 2007 and our upcoming water workshop with Louisiana and German water scientists and engineers to be held at LSU in March 2008, Funding for this activity would allow a symposium to be held in the Fall, 2008 with the selected topic of Resilient Environmental Infrastructure for Coastal Communities. This symposia topic is of great interest and was tentatively planned for the last funding cycle but participation by some key speakers could not be insured until this year.