Louisiana Coastal Master Plan

Louisiana’s coast is changing, as it has for centuries. But today, the pace of change is far exceeding how quickly residents and ecosystems can adapt. The Coastal Master Plan is a living document that guides and communicates the state’s coastwide investments in risk reduction and coastal restoration projects.

After Hurricane Katrina, the Louisiana Legislature created the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) to coordinate local restoration efforts. Since 2007, the CPRA has developed a series of Coastal Master Plans to help evaluate and plan the wide variety of projects across the coast to prepare for and respond to a climate-changed future. In this critical landscape, the 2023 Coastal Master Plan was developed, in collaboration with SCAPE, to help the region prepare and respond to rising sea levels, sinking land, and stronger storms.

CPRA harnesses the combined expertise of scientists, engineers, policymakers, and citizens to help guide investments in restoration and risk reduction projects. SCAPE came onboard to develop the overarching visual communication strategy and graphic identity for the Coastal Master Plan. During this multi-year partnership, SCAPE enhanced the plan’s visual accessibility and comprehension and wove local identity into the overall narrative.

A major shift in the plan was reframing the communication of a changed landscape. In previous plans, land loss was shown on maps in red. The design team reframed this to show land change in blue and green, communicating that change is inevitable, but communities can adapt and ecosystems can shift.

The plan empowers communities across parishes and regions to see themselves as active participants in Louisiana's coastal future.

By making complex data visually accessible to broad audiences, the Master Plan is transformed from a technical document into a shared civic tool, galvanizing diverse coalitions around the urgent work of climate adaptation.

The design team developed model output maps, aerial regional views, explanatory diagrams, data visualizations, and fact sheets, which communicate the Coastal Master Plan’s impacts and benefits at the Regional, Parish, Community, and Project levels.

Improving legibility

The team developed 8 implementable project types, each with an illustrated diagram that clearly demonstrates its coastal adaptation potential.
Icons were redesigned to make them accessible to people with visual impairments, and engineering diagrams were updated to better communicate their purpose and potential benefits to the landscape and its communities.
“Translating the complex technical analyses that underpin the plan is an enormous challenge. This plan has been lauded by citizens, experts, and legislators for its clarity and accessibility.”

Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority State Agent

For communities that have watched land disappear, marshes thin, and storms intensify, despair is an understandable response. When people feel excluded from decisions, or believe the losses are too great to reverse, they disengage. The 2023 Coastal Master Plan was designed to counter that by offering a clear-eyed account of what the landscape still is, and a shared framework for what it could become.

By tailoring recommendations to each region, the master plan better reflects the experiences of coastal residents. Each piece of collateral empowers local leaders and residents to make decisions using information specific to them.

The Louisiana coast is extraordinary in scale and consequence, sustaining ecological and economic systems that the entire country depends on. Its wetlands form the largest contiguous marsh system in the lower 48 states, supporting biodiversity found nowhere else in the country.

A plan for the people

The 2023 Master Plan was built on the understanding that local investment and lived knowledge are as essential to coastal resilience as any engineered solution.
Throughout the master plan development process, the team met with a broad network of residents, local officials, and experts across Louisiana to discuss issues specific to each region.
To reach a greater audience, the design team created engagement tools in a variety of formats including an online data viewer and video explanations of the plan and its intent.
The online data viewer provides a greater level of detail and the ability to find high-resolution benefits data, search projects, understand coastwide implementation, and more.
The videos explain how the plan can help residents prepare for a changing landscape, what it means to plan with uncertainty, and how each project type is best utilized in the landscape.

The master plan functions as a long-term guide to restoration and risk reduction investments throughout the state, undertaken in parallel to related efforts to promote sustainable commercial and recreational activities across the coast. It is a key tool in organizing collective action and funding decisions.

News

Louisiana's $50 billion Coastal Master Plan receives unanimous legislative approval

Tristan Baurick
NOLA.com

Louisiana is leading the nation in coastal planning and management, using the best available science to effectively allocate resources.

Given the success of the 2023 Master Plan, SCAPE is working with the CPRA to develop the 2029 Coastal Master Plan using improved adaptation strategies to better sustain the coast and its communities for generations to come.