Overview
- A Nature Sustainability paper, published May 4, finds coastal Louisiana cannot keep its current footprint over the long term.
- The authors estimate relative sea level in the region is committed to rise about 3 to 7 meters, with the shoreline shifting up to 100 kilometers inland.
- The study projects the shoreline could sit more than 30 miles inland of New Orleans and that about 75% of remaining wetlands could be gone by 2070.
- The paper warns levees and pumps cannot protect New Orleans indefinitely and calls for managed relocation to higher ground.
- Retreat has already begun, with post‑Katrina losses in Orleans and Cameron Parishes, and a separate analysis reports major flood risk for 99% of New Orleans residents.