Announcement of Public Comments

The Louisiana Applied Coastal Engineering and Science Division of the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority of Louisiana (CPRA-LACES) is releasing for public comment a draft technical report outlining recommendations for anticipating sea-level rise impacts on Louisiana's coast. The paper outlines an approach to assist coastal planners and managers when addressing sea level rise in future restoration and protection projects.

Based on an analysis of the available scientific literature on the topic, the draft report recommends that State restoration project planners and designers plan for a 1-meter (3.3') mean rise in the sea level of the Gulf of Mexico by 2100 compared to the late 1980s and that analyses be bounded by global sea level rise ranges of 0.5-1.5 meters (1.4'-4.9') by 2100. The report additionally recommends that these assumptions be combined with local geological and ecological processes, such as subsidence and marsh vertical accretion, when calculating the relative elevation of coastal wetlands for project planning and design. The specific procedure for calculating local sea level rise is detailed in the report.

The full Technical Report and a corresponding Summary for Managers can be accessed on the CPRA website at www.coastal.la.gov. CPRA-LACES invites comments on both documents. We are opening a 30-day public comment period beginning on Monday, February 6, 2012 that will remain open through midnight Central Standard Time on Wednesday, March 7th, 2012. The website contains instructions for submitting comments to CPRA-LACES. The draft technical report and recommendations will be revised as necessary to account for comments received and a copy of the final report and recommendations will be made available on the CPRA website when complete.