NEW ORLEANS – The Data Center team, Allison Plyer, Keisha Dubuclet, Caroline Heffernan and Nihal Shrinath, released a new infographic with data about about maximizing economic growth with managing water in Southeast Louisiana.
They report:
• In 2016, Southeast Louisiana finds itself in an uncertain economic climate. An oil price downturn has led to destabilizing layoffs.
• Within the region, there has been a renewed focus on growing small businesses, so the next fleet of economic drivers can replace those that previously drove the economy.
• It is becoming increasingly evident that the emerging water management sector can be the innovative, small business hub that spins out major Louisiana employers for future decades.
• With a recently confirmed $20.8 billion BP settlement slated to fuel coastal restoration along the Gulf for years to come, and $2 billion from FEMA allocated for water management within the New Orleans levee walls, there will be dollars, over the next two decades, that can go towards Louisiana companies, many of them small businesses.
• To be sure, opportunities were missed to direct post-Katrina recovery dollars into multiplier effect efforts. Amazingly, Louisiana has yet another opportunity to use billions of federal dollars to catalyze growth, this time in a specific industry—water management.
• Our new infographic, developed from data in The Coastal Index 2015, shows that while Louisiana is taking steps toward building a water management cluster, it may be repeating mistakes of the past. We are leaving out local and small businesses that could be capitalizing on a new wave of environmental infrastructure, and neglecting to fully capture the benefits of large out-of-state companies establishing satellite offices or regional headquarters in Louisiana.
