Introduction:In New Orleans, Louisiana streets flood easily. In as quickly as 15 minutes streets can be replaced with a stream of water that continues to crawl up onto the sidewalks and recently into people's homes. This comes from much of the land being displaced by homes and streets, the storm drains get clogged by waste and dirt, and the pumps that are supposed to pump water to Lake Pontchartrain have often not worked and reversed, pushing the water back into the city.

My main concern:

I want to identify a way to diverge or make use of the water that is being displaced by streets and buildings so that storm drains and the pumps don't have to deal with as much water.

Obstacles and supporting information:

There aren't many floods to collect data from and it's difficult to figure out a way to calculate the amount of water that comes down if a flood is to occur.

Who is engaged in this concern?

Many local groups have done small things to try and reduce their water footprint. Water Wise Gulf South, people in New Orleans working through iseechange.org, and Sister of St. Joseph have all worked to improve their water footprint and controlling the flooding.

What are the initial questions?

• How much water comes off of the roof of some buildings?

• How much water is having to go through the drain's after a rainstorm?

• How long does it take for water to recede after a flood?