Water Institute aims to become global center for studying rising sea levels, climate change

Louisiana is losing to coastal erosion enough land to fill a football field every hour. Over a year, the land loss is equivalent to the size of Manhattan. But that’s nothing, says John Spain, executive vice president of BRAF, compared to what the land loss potential is if nothing is done to restore the coast. “We have the potential to lose 1,756 square miles of land over the next 50 years,” says Spain, who gave a presentation this morning on CityStats at the Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center. That makes New Orleans an island by 2100, he says, “and Baton Rouge becomes a coastal city.” The Water Institute of the Gulf, which BRAF partnered in founding in 2011, is devoted to impeding the sea’s encroachment and rebuilding land. With about $50 billion in coastal restoration funding coming to Louisiana, mostly in compensation for the BP oil spill, Spain says The Water Institute aims to become the global center of studying rising sea levels and climate change. “Great minds from all over the world will come to Louisiana because this is a laboratory where we’re going to learn the answers,” says Spain, adding that the institute will create jobs. “We have a double-whammy in Louisiana, because sea-rise is coming and we also have subsidence—our land is sinking,” he says. In time, The Water Institute will establish a campus where laboratories and facilities can be built to make Louisiana the premiere destination for studying sea-level change. “That’s the long-term dream,” Spain says. —Adam Pearson