LIVING WITH WATER IN NEW ORLEANS
Hosted by AGU, ISEECHANGE and local partners

Note: Registration for this event is now closed. If you would still like to attend, email Nanci Bompey at nbompey@agu.org.

New Orleans is a city defined by its relationship to water. Decisions around water infrastructure have influenced the most prominent aspects of the city’s history and culture for the last 300 years. Now, as evident in recent flooding events in July and August, the city’s future depends on changing its relationship to water: “Living with Water” rather than treating it as an existential threat.

In this field trip for members of the media, journalists will learn about cutting-edge approaches to combine citizen science, remote sensing data, and community engagement projects to influence the design of the city’s infrastructure. Through a comprehensive approach to building resilience, these projects aim to reduce flooding and subsidence, improve water quality, reduce the burden on existing drainage infrastructure, create inclusive workforce and economic development opportunities, and improve health and quality of life.

The tour, led by AGU partner ISEECHANGE, local scientists and experts, will visit the Gentilly Resilience District and other New Orleans neighborhoods affected by flooding. The tour will include a history of the city's relationship with water, exploration of green infrastructure demonstration projects implemented by various public agencies and nonprofits, and information about large-scale innovative urban water management projects breaking ground in 2018.

The New Orleans flood investigation with ISEECHANGE is one of more than 40 Thriving Earth Exchange (TEX) projects currently underway or completed in the U.S. TEX is a program powered by AGU that brings communities together with Earth and space scientists to address local challenges related to natural resources, natural hazards and climate issues. ISEECHANGE is the nation’s first community crowdsourced climate and weather journal that empowers users to document environmental changes with others and discuss the impacts over time.

The field trip will conclude with a media networking happy hour alongside AGU scientists and local experts.

DETAILS

When: Sunday, December 10, 2017. Field trip: 1 – 5 pm; happy hour immediately afterward.

Where: The field trip will depart from the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, 2 Poydras St, New Orleans, Louisiana, 70130 and drop participants off at the happy hour location, which will be within walking distance of the New Orleans Convention Center. Further details on the trip and happy hour will be provided closer to the meeting.

Cost: Free!

Eligibility: Space for the tour is limited. Staff journalists representing media organizations, freelance journalists, photographers, videographers, bloggers, authors and filmmakers will have first priority for registration. If space is still available on the tour one week before the meeting, AGU will open the tour to public information officers and institutional science communicators. PIOs and institutional science communicators interested in attending can fill out the form on this page to be notified if space becomes available. The happy hour following the field trip is open to all AGU Fall Meeting press registrants.

If you are unsure what media category you fit into, read AGU's press eligibility guidelines here.

Register: All reporters planning to attend the field trip MUST pre-register using Eventbrite; no on-site registrations will be accepted. Field trip attendees MUST be registered as press for the 2017 AGU Fall Meeting to attend. However, it is not necessary to wait for your press credentials to be approved to register for the field trip. You can register online for Fall Meeting press credentials here.

Note: If you register for the field trip and are unable to attend, please cancel your registration as soon as possible so that AGU can make your spot available to another person.

Questions: email Nanci Bompey at news@agu.org.

2017 AGU Fall Meeting press field trip