When levees broke in New Orleans and water started gushing in, many Americans were stunned to learn the city—and the country—weren't ready. Outside Louisiana, leaders from the president on down said they couldn't have imagined such chilling devastation. But Gilbert White already had, decades before.
Back in 1942, White, a geographer who would later found an influential natural hazards research center at the University of Colorado, was writing about how floods could wipe out cities, and he started to push for better planning. A pioneer in approaching solutions from a whole-environment perspective, he emphasized the need to look at more than just building a levee here or a floodwall there.
White built a long career traveling the world, helping nations improve how they manage water and plan for floods. It would be decades, though, before his message would be taken seriously at home.
Now 93, White is known as the "father of floodplain management" and received the 2000 National Medal of Science for his leadership in this field. Reflecting on his lifetime of work, White said he hopes it has made a difference. "It's hard to get people to think ahead," he said.
 |
| Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography Gilbert F. White (Photo/ Ken Abbott, CU-Boulder) |
In 1942, White finished his doctoral dissertation, Human Adjustment to Floods, at the University of Chicago. He was already working for President Franklin Roosevelt's Bureau of the Budget, after spending the Depression years in the New Deal administration's natural resources planning efforts. America was at war that year, and White, a devout Quaker, was a conscientious objector who worked with refugees in France instead of taking up arms.
White recognized that wartime technology came to dominate the American approach to problem solving. American bombers and fighter planes were the first line of defense against Nazi Germany. The war pushed forward development of jet airplanes, radar and penicillin. Most Americans believed that science and engineering, along with American muscle, could solve most problems.
Then, as now, cities faced floods. In the 1940s, city planners and engineers were eager to push forward with technological fixes. American ingenuity seemed to be enough to ensure safety. The Tennessee Valley Authority had built dams across seven states for flood control and hydroelectric power as part of the first massive development plan of its kind in the nation.
Within the president's administration, White started preaching that such a command-and-conquer approach to protection from environmental onslaughts would backfire. Instead of a relentless focus on building new structures, White promoted stewardship of the landscape. Instead of spending large sums to rebuild after a disaster, White suggested planning ahead to reduce future impacts. He said flood-prone areas should adapt to flood hazards, by keeping people and property out of harm's way when possible, and building flood-resistant buildings when needed.
Such thinking flew in the face of traditional military and engineering approaches, and the Army Corps of Engineers resisted White's ideas for many years. But eventually his perspectives took hold even there. Over the years, ecological and interdisciplinary approaches to land and water management became more popular as resource managers learned from the mistakes of dams that failed and drainage projects that destroyed wildlife habitat. In 2001, the Corps established a complete collection of White's work—more than 4,000 publications and work papers spanning more than 50 years—at the Corps' Institute for Water Resources in Alexandria, Va.
The Corps' collection includes a written introduction that reflects a new attitude. It reads in part, "Gilbert White's influence on floodplain management practice in the United States can hardly be overestimated … [His] work demonstrated that flood control structures not only occasionally fail the standards of reliability set by planners but can actually increase the damage done when unsuspecting people risk lives and money to develop the land supposedly protected."
After the war, White established an academic career. As a professor at the University of Chicago, White asked his class one day if anyone knew of a place in the West where he could take his children to work on a ranch, as he had done as a boy in Wyoming. One student said Boulder, Colo., was a nice place with ranches. White listened, and leased 1,000 acres near Boulder for $150 for the summer. He later returned to Boulder permanently, joined the faculty at CU, and founded a center here to study and plan for natural hazards such as flooding.
That center, the Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center, is a vital presence on the CU campus today.
Boulder was a natural place to study flood risk, as Boulder has the highest flood risk in Colorado, according to White. Thousands of homes and businesses in Boulder are vulnerable to the kind of flooding that happens on average once a century, which Boulder is currently overdue for, while thousands more would wash away in a bigger flood, the kind that happens more rarely but which is bound to devastate Boulder eventually.
The "100-year flood level" is the standard used in federal flood regulations, but given that bigger floods happen every 500 years or so, White thinks the mandatory flood zone level should be expanded to include that risk.
White has worked to prepare Boulder for the next big flood. In 1994, he created the Boulder Creek Flood Notebook, a detailed set of questions that researchers and volunteers will answer to describe what happens during and after the next big flood to hit Boulder.
That day has not yet come, but right now, the entire country is thinking about disasters and flooding in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
White said he was surprised the federal government didn't do more to deal with levee safety and educating the public about what to do before a hurricane hits. He criticized the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), now placed under the new Department of Homeland Security. "In the interest of [counteracting] terrorism, they have put more people at risk," said White.
White said New Orleans must now "consider not only the social benefit of protecting people from floods, but also maintaining the natural ecosystem." While he said the people who really know that region need to form the specific plans, White said planners need to consider the whole landscape. "It's not just a question of do we build a levee or not, but how do we make wise use of the floodplain?"
Over the years, White's principles have woven their way thoroughly into the fabric of urban planning. His ideas may influence the way New Orleans is rebuilt, even if White is not directing the process.
The next generation of urban planners in New Orleans is learning from White through his papers. Robert Collins is an assistant professor and department chair of Urban Studies and Public Policy at Dillard University in New Orleans. In his department's courses on land-use planning, White's work on floods and planning is peppered throughout the course. "Any planner would know his name," Collins said.
Sylvia Dane, Emergency Management and Planning Coordinator for CU, has known White for 17 years. "He is the most amazing person I've ever known," she said. "He has such a strong voice because of his modesty; he can bring stakeholders to the table and they will listen."
White now lives in an airy, spacious condominium above the west end of Pearl Street in Boulder. Ironically, he chose to live in one of the most flood-prone parts of Boulder. In the kind of flood that happens on average once every 100 years in Boulder, White said that area will flood up to the rooftops of one-story buildings.
"Someday Boulder will be seriously flooded," White said. "It's just a matter of time."
When that day comes, White will be ready. He had the building built with only a garage and entryway on the first floor. He predicts the brick building will stand, and perhaps White will look out the window and decide whether his town listened.
For more on Gilbert White, the Gustavson Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography at the University of Colorado, visit his biography Web site.
No comments:
Post a Comment