Intelligent Flood Protection Monitoring Warning & Response System

The State of Louisiana Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration (OCRP) deployed a state-of-the-art Intelligent Flood Protection Monitoring, Warning, and Response System (IFPRMWRS) at strategic locations within the flood control systems under its responsibility.  This system will include the ability to monitor and warn of undesirable performance that could lead to catastrophic consequences.  These warnings should occur early to facilitate defensive measures and evacuations.  The system should always remain operational, robust, and reliable, including throughout a 500-year hurricane or 500-year flood.  The current focus is on the New Orleans Metropolitan Area but the approach must be scalable to all flood protection systems within OCRP’s responsibility.  Further, it must be scalable to future additions and improvements in technology.  The system must be sustainable for a minimum period of 50 years.

The IFPRMWRS are capable of monitoring the condition of the flood protection system both during and between storm and flood events.   The intent is to provide real-time information to aid in evaluating the system's flood readiness and provide real-time input on the conditions leading up to the possible failure of system components during a flood event to provide warnings.  Between flood events, the flood protection system would be monitored to provide indications of small movements or deformation, which could be inspected, evaluated, and repaired before a storm or flood event.  A full-scale instrumentation program would follow this first phase based on the recommendations developed by this program.