Moreau appointed to the Committee on New Orleans
Regional Hurricane Protection Projects

Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding of much of the New
Orleans metro area prompted many questions about the performance
of the city’s hurricane protection system.  To help provide credible
scientific and engineering answers regarding the performance of this
system, the Committee on New Orleans Regional Hurricane Protection
Projects has been convened to review data gathered by the U.S Army
Corps of Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers.

As a committee member, Dr. Moreau will focus his investigation on three primary topics: a) design capacity of
the hurricane protection system, b) forces exerted against the system and system response, and c) factors
that resulted in overtopping, breaching, or failure of levees and floodwalls.

Factors under review by the committee are: data collection and management (perishable, systems data, and
information management), interior drainage systems models, numerical models of the Hurricane Katrina surge
and wave environment, storm surge and wave physical modeling of hydrodynamic forces and centrifuge
breaching, geodetic vertical survey assessment, and the analysis of floodwall and levee performance.  The
committee will issue a comprehensive report (due in September 2006) that summarizes the structural
performance of New Orleans’ hurricane protection system.  

Dr. Moreau has research interests in the analysis, planning, financing, and evaluation of water and related
environmental programs.  His publications include work in systems analysis, planning and management of
urban water systems, management of water supplies during droughts, and planning and evaluation of
watershed management programs.

Learn more about Dr. Moreau’s research