Non-Decision Power and Political Opportunity: Exposing Structural Barriers to Mobilization in Louisiana’s Coastal Restoration Conflict

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 508-525
Author(s):  
Jacob E. Lipsman
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi River ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
The State ◽  
Master Plan ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Coastal Restoration ◽  
Specific Project ◽  
Decision Power

Louisiana’s Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast is the state of Louisiana’s ambitious response to its continuing land loss crisis. Coastal restoration enjoys universal approval as a political issue in the state; however, controversy exists over a specific project type that seeks to divert sediment from the Mississippi River into surrounding marsh. While the State argues that sediment diversions are critical for land building, widespread concerns persist that changes to the estuary will generate economic hardship for coastal communities. This study investigates the structural challenges that diversion opponents have faced in their effort to mount effective resistance to the State’s sediment diversion projects. The study uses Lukes’ radical perspective of power to explore the ways in which the institutional configuration in Louisiana’s coastal zone produces an insular bureaucratic coalition that limits political opportunity for excluded groups to affect the coastal planning process. This article argues that this coalition, and the State and the energy industry in particular, has been able to leverage non-decision power and ideology to inhibit mobilization against the diversion component of the coastal master plan.

Infrastructuring “data-driven” environmental governance in Louisiana’s coastal restoration plan

2020 ◽  
pp. 251484862090972
Author(s):  
Eric Nost
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Mississippi River ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Data Infrastructure ◽  
Coastal Restoration ◽  
Restoration Planning ◽  
Political Effect

Conservationists around the world advocate for “data-driven” environmental governance, expecting data infrastructures to make all relevant and actionable information readily available. But how exactly is data to be infrastructured and to what political effect? I show how putting together and maintaining environmental data for decision-making is not a straightforward technical task, but a practice shaped by and shaping politico-economic context. Drawing from the US state of Louisiana’s coastal restoration planning process, I detail two ways ecosystem modelers manage fiscal and institutional “frictions” to “infrastructuring” data as a resource for decision-making. First, these experts work with the data they have. They leverage, tweak, and maintain existing datasets and tools, spending time and money to gather additional data only to the extent it fits existing goals. The assumption is that these goals will continue to be important, but building coastal data infrastructure around current research needs, plans, and austerity arguably limits what can be said in and done with the future. Second, modelers acquire the data they made to need. Coastal communities have protested the state’s primary restoration tool: diversions of sediment from the Mississippi River. Planners reacted by relaxing institutional constraints and modelers brought together new data to highlight possible winners and losers from ecological restoration. Fishers and other coastal residents leveraged greater dissent in the planning process. Political ecologists show that technocentric environmental governance tends to foreclose dissent from hegemonic socioecological futures. I argue we can clarify the conditions in which this tends to happen by following how experts manage data frictions. As some conservationists and planners double down on driving with data in a “post-truth” world, I find that data’s politicizing effects stem from what is asked of it, not whether it is “big” or “drives.”

scholarly journals Statewide Water Planning: The Georgia Experience

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 357-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey D. Mullen
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Water Use ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
The State ◽  
Water Planning ◽  
The Past ◽  
Extensive Effort ◽  
Recommended Practices ◽  
Regional Water

Several states in the southeast have acknowledged the need for statewide water planning but have yet to act. In contrast, Georgia is on the cusp of completing the Georgia Comprehensive Statewide Water Management Plan (SWMP). The SWMP provides for resource assessments, forecasts, and regional water planning. Over the past three years, an extensive effort has been made to implement the SWMP. This article describes the planning process undertaken in Georgia. Several of the recommended practices are also highlighted and critiqued with respect to their potential to affect aggregate water use in the state.

scholarly journals Recovery and Restoration of Biloxi Marsh in the Mississippi River Delta

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 3179
Author(s):  
G. Paul Kemp ◽  
Elizabeth C. McDade ◽  
John W. Day ◽  
Robert R. Lane ◽  
Nancye H. Dawers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi River ◽  
The State ◽  
River Delta ◽  
Regional Studies ◽  
Mississippi River Delta ◽  
Industry Data ◽  
River Deltas ◽  
2D And 3D ◽  
Restoration Measures ◽  
Different Levels

The State of Louisiana is leading an integrated wetland restoration and flood risk reduction program in the Mississippi River Delta. East of New Orleans, Biloxi Marsh, a ~1700 km2 peninsula jutting 60 km north toward the State of Mississippi is one of few Delta wetland tracts well positioned to dissipate hurricane surge and waves threatening the city’s newly rebuilt hurricane flood defenses. Both its location on the eastern margin of the Delta, and its genesis as the geologic core of the shallow water St. Bernard/Terre aux Boeuf sub-delta, which was the primary Mississippi outlet for almost 2000 years, make Biloxi Marsh attractive for restoration, now that the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet deep-draft ship channel has been dammed, and 50 years of impacts from construction and operation have abated. Now, the cascade of ecosystem damage it caused can be reversed or offset by restoration projects that leverage natural recovery and increased access to suspended sediment from the Mississippi River. Biloxi Marsh is (1) geologically stable, (2) benefiting from increased input of river sediment, and (3) could be restored to sustainability earlier and for a longer period than most of the rest of the submerging Mississippi Delta. The focus of this review is on the Biloxi Marsh, but it also provides a template for regional studies, including analysis of 2D and 3D seismic and other energy industry data to explore why existing marshes that look similar on the ground or from the air may respond to restoration measures with different levels of success. Properties of inherent durability and resilience can be exploited in restoration project selection, sequencing and expenditure. Issues encountered and investigative methods applied in the Biloxi Marsh are likely to resonate across initiatives now contemplated to sustain valuable river deltas worldwide.

scholarly journals An Ornithological Cross-section of Illinois in Autumn

1907 ◽  
Vol 7 (1-10) ◽  
pp. 305-335
Author(s):  
S. A. Forbes
Keyword(s):  
Cross Section ◽  
Mississippi River ◽  
The State ◽  
October 17

The present paper is a discussion of the product of one of their earlier trips, made from August 28 to October 17, 1906, across the state from east to west, from the Indiana line beyond Danville, Ill., to Quincy, on the Mississippi River. It has to do with autumnal conditions in the central part of the state, and is merely preliminary to a comprehensive report on the whole investigation.

scholarly journals Remote Observations of the State of Agricultural Crops

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (12) ◽  
pp. 197-206
Author(s):  
A. Babaeva ◽  
A. Guseinov
Keyword(s):  
Planning Process ◽  
The State ◽  
Complete Picture ◽  
Agricultural Crops ◽  
Organization Of Work ◽  
Productive Land ◽  
Sown Area

Shown are the stages of obtaining images of individual fields, regions and districts using satellites with a certain cyclicity. The possibility of obtaining information on the state of the land, including crop identification, determining the sown area of crops and the state of the crop, is being considered. In conclusion, it is concluded that phytopathological control using filming means is more effective since it becomes possible to get the most complete picture of the boundaries of the spread of the disease. This greatly simplifies the planning process and the organization of work to save the crop. It will also allow preserving tens of thousands of hectares of highly productive land in agricultural circulation.

Institutional Arrangements and Political Shifts in Curitiba, Brazil: A Comparative Analysis of the 2004 and 2014 Master Plans

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Débora Follador ◽  
Fábio Duarte ◽  
Mario Carrier
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Institutional Arrangement ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Master Plan ◽  
Municipal Elections ◽  
Master Plans ◽  
Political Upheaval ◽  
New Public

In theory, shifts in institutional arrangements result in new public policies. This articles focuses on Curitiba, Brazil, an international flagship city of urban planning recognized for its technocratic government. The 2012 municipal elections and the 2013 nationwide political upheaval led to a change in the city's institutional arrangement. As a consequence, the 2014 Master Plan was conceived with the tagline of more public participation. This paper analyzes whether the changes in institutional arrangements influenced the city's planning process and the Master Plan.

Euromaidan(s) in Russian Academic Literature

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-254
Author(s):  
Jonáš Syrovátka ◽  
Jan Holzer
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
The State ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Multiple Reactions ◽  
The Russian Federation

Abstract Euromaidan events represented a major political issue for discussion among Russian political analysts. While from a distance the perception in Russian society might seem monolithic, a closer look suggests that Euromaidan events spurred multiple reactions within the population. To demonstrate this, the article describes the different perceptions of Euromaidan in 108 texts published by Russian academics between 2013 and 2018. While analyzing the argumentation of these texts, it is possible to identify two main differences—terminology in the use of either coup or revolution to describe the happenings, and the importance of the local context for the course of events. Significant differences among texts allow us to conclude that there have been various interpretations of Euromaidan among Russian academics. This conclusion not only sheds new light on the state of public debate in the Russian Federation but can be also seen as a contribution to the debate about how so-called modern authoritarian regimes operate.

Master Planning Considerations for Commercial Ports

1975 ◽  
Vol 12 (01) ◽  
pp. 25-32
Author(s):  
Donald A. Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Planning Process ◽  
Master Plan ◽  
Master Planning ◽  
Environmental Legislation ◽  
Recreational Facilities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Master Plans ◽  
Made In

The paper presents the author's observations on some of the considerations that should go into preparing a port master plan. He indicates that many ports are now paying the price for not having developed master plans years ago before the advent of containerization and the new specialized types of ships coming into service. One of the primary considerations for port planners at the present time is in accommodating the public with regard to recreational facilities. Also, the restrictions being placed on ports by environmental legislation are also having a significant effect. The author emphasizes that a master planning process is a never-ending effort, since adjustments and modifications should continually be made in light of changing circumstances and technology.

The Constitution of Free Speech

Art Attacks ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 29-57
Author(s):  
Malvika Maheshwari
Keyword(s):  
Free Speech ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Order ◽  
Master Plan ◽  
Conceptual Foundation ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
The Right

The preliminary chapter outlines the conceptual foundation of India’s free speech regime by focussing on the debates of the Constituent Assembly of India that took place between 1946 and 1949, and traces the development of Article 19 of the Constitution, which guarantees all citizens the right to free speech and expression, albeit with certain ‘reasonable restrictions’ such as public order, decency and morality, and security of the state, among others. While offering a synoptic account of the sundry forms that the right to free speech took as the framers navigated the discrepancies between their imagined ideal and the existent, conflicting reality, the idea is not to uncover some grand master-plan of the Indian democracy from which it has faltered, but to explore how it might lend a fissure to the violent accusations of offending religious, cultural, or national sentiments in contemporary India.

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