The LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio (CSS), a trans-disciplinary program of the College of Art & Design, College of Engineering, and School of the Coast & Environment, has been awarded a $200,000, two-year grant from the Kresge Foundation to assist Louisiana communities plan for climate change, sea-level rise, land subsidence, and other hazards.

Funding will support development of a tool or process that will coordinate local city planning and land use decisions with the efforts of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) 2012 Coastal Master Plan.

It will also provide an avenue through which communities may better access state funding for their resiliency planning efforts.

This is the first time LSU has received a grant from this prestigious and highly competitive foundation.

“We are delighted to receive a grant from the Kresge Foundation,” said Jeff Carney, CSS Director and Associate Professor of Architecture. “The future of our state depends upon resilient coastal communities able to adapt to the uncertainties and realities of a changing climate.”

Through the grant, CSS will be working closely with the CPRA to establish an ongoing partnership between agencies and communities.

Louisiana’s risks from sea-level rise are multiplied by a combination of changing climate and natural- and human-induced land subsidence, which may be the most serious in the world.

The LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio is unique in that it brings together disciplines that normally work separately so that it can respond to critical coastal issues in the most comprehensive way. Many previous coastal protection and restoration efforts have been solely engineering or science based, leaving out the human element. CSS offers a new paradigm, allowing designers such as architects, landscape architects, and city planners have a voice in the process.

The Kresge Foundation is a $3 billion private, national foundation headquartered in Detroit. It works to expand opportunities in America’s cities through investments in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services, and community development.

For more information about CSS visit css.lsu.edu.

For more information about the Kresge Foundation, visit kresge.org.

Contact

Laura Larkin
Coordinator
LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio
225-578-4990
larkin@lsu.edu