La carence des recherches académiques portant sur la problématique de l'insécurité urbaine dans le contexte particulier d'une ville affectée par une catastrophe majeure, nous a mené à investir cette problématique à travers le cas de la Nouvelle-Orléans et de la catastrophe Katrina. L'analyse de données criminelles inédites, complétée par un travail de terrain approfondi, a permis de « reconstituer » les évolutions spatiales et temporelles de la criminalité en lien avec la catastrophe Katrina. A court terme, Katrina a conduit à de nombreux « transferts » d'insécurité à l'échelle de la ville et des sites d'évacuation qui ont subi des « effets reportés » de la catastrophe. Néanmoins, l'analyse des données tant quantitatives et qualitatives permet de fortement nuancer certains discours qui ont orienté les réponses des gestionnaires. L'insécurité, notamment dans sa dimension subjective, a ainsi constitué une sérieuse entrave à la gestion de la crise, notamment à l'évacuation des victimes prises au piège par les inondations. A plus long terme, le retour progressif des populations évacuées s'est accompagné d'une criminalité violente qui avait connu une forte réduction au cours des premiers mois post Katrina. L'analyse des données criminelles menée à différentes échelles spatiales, permet d'envisager la criminalité comme une « grille de lecture » des transformations urbaines post catastrophe. D'autre part, les mutations urbaines rapides après Katrina ont affecté les représentations du danger qui ne se sont pas toujours ajustées à la nouvelle « réalité criminelle » des différents quartiers de la ville. L'approche systémique de l'insécurité urbaine post catastrophe permet de mettre en évidence une aggravation du risque criminel après Katrina à l'échelle de la ville en raison d'un affaiblissement prolongé des territoires en marge de la reconstruction où les activités criminelles ont pu proliférer. Dans la mesure où les catastrophes telles que Katrina peuvent conduire à un renforcement de l'insécurité urbaine, notamment à l'échelle des territoires les plus vulnérables, une plus grande considération de cette problématique par les chercheurs semble dès lors nécessaire. L'anticipation des conséquences qu'une catastrophe majeure peut avoir sur la sécurité d'une ville permettrait d'intégrer la question de l'insécurité urbaine dans les plans de gestion de crise et de reconstruction post catastrophe et ainsi de faciliter le processus de résilience urbaine. / The lack of academic research on “urban insecurity” in the context of a city affected by a major disaster led us to investigate this issue through the case of New Orleans and the Katrina disaster. The analysis of crime data, complemented by an intensive field work, allowed us to “recreate” the spatial and temporal evolution of crime related to Katrina. In the short term, Katrina let to numerous crime displacements in New Orleans and in the cities affected by indirect impacts from the disaster. Nonetheless, the analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data allows to seriously play down the discourses which oriented the official responses to the disaster. Crime, in particular fear of crime, has represented a serious obstacle to the crisis management, especially to the evacuation of the residents trapped by the floods. In the longer term, the return of the inhabitants came along with the return of violent crime after a lull of several months after hurricane Katrina. The analysis of crime data at different spatial scales allows us to consider crime as a frame to “read” post disaster changes in urban dynamics. Besides, brutal changes in those dynamics and in the urban landscape have affected the perceptions of danger which didn't always adjust to the new “criminal trends” of the city's different neighborhoods. The holistic approach of post disaster “urban insecurity” allows us to highlight an increase of crime risk at the city scale after Katrina because of a long lasting weakening of territories that struggle to recover and where criminal activities have proliferated. Since disasters like Katrina can lead to an increase in urban insecurity, in particular in the most vulnerable territories, a better consideration of this issue by researchers seems therefore necessary. The anticipation of the consequences that a major disaster can have on urban security would allow to integrate the issue of crime and its prevention into disaster management and recovery plans and therefore to facilitate the process of urban resilience.

Hurricane Katrina made landfall 60 miles east of New Orleans, Louisiana, on August 29, 2005. The storm revealed the reality of the socio-economic state of tens of thousands of African Americans living in the city of New Orleans, especially African-American women. This study examines the state of development of African-American women who lived in the Lower 9th Ward area of New Orleans prior to, during, and after Hurricane Katrina. This study was based on the premise that African-American women who lived in the Lower 9th Ward were significantly more affected by Hurricane Katrina than any other group in the area because of their race, class, gender, and state of development. A narrative analysis was chosen as the method for this study. The data were collected from interviews was analyzed to explore how Hurricane Katrina impacted these women’s state of development, or the lack thereof. The researcher found that Lower 9th Ward African-American women were impacted by Hurricane Katrina more than any other group because of their underdeveloped state. The conclusions drawn from the findings suggest that the African-American women from the Lower 9th Ward area lived a life comparable to that of women in developing countries, while living in a First World country. The reality of their underdeveloped state allowed for Hurricane Katrina to impact them more negatively than any other group by leaving them unable to regain normalcy in some areas of their lives, especially those areas influenced by their race, class, and gender.

This narrative study explores the transition from high school to college for low-income students of color who participated in a college access mentoring program, the College Admissions Project (CAP) while in twelfth-grade. A community cultural wealth (CCW) lens guides this research and is used to examine student experiences. CAP alumni who enrolled in an institution of higher education in the fall semester immediately following their high school graduation are the participants in this study. A narrative approach to inquiry is used because the author is interested in the particular experiences of a few individuals. Specifically, the experiences of low-income students of color from New Orleans as they made the transition from high school to college either in 2015 or 2016. This study has implications for practice in the area of college access programs as well as theoretical applications which extend a CCW framework to additional communities of color beyond Latina/o communities. In the area of practice, supporting positive peer relationships could make college access programs more effective. Student voice is also important to the participants in this study. Students should be part program development and evaluation processes so that programs are designed to best meet their needs as they exist, rather than as adults see them. There is some evidence that a CCW framework is applicable to the experiences of these students. Informational and social capital were most commonly referenced by participants, and efforts to help students further develop these assets would help to support their college transition processes.

Youth outreach programs use innovative and community-based activities to fill in gaps of education, provide creative outlets, create access to opportunities, and empower youth.1 This research investigates, records, and compares the ways in which staff and youth participants perceive the experience at a New Orleans youth program. The purpose of the research is to provide insight towards potential program improvement. The participants of this study are from Compassion Outreach of America’s summer program Project Reach NOLA in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana. There are twenty-nine participants, between the ages of fourteen and fifty years old. The participants are directors, staff members, and youth enrolled in the program. The mixed-methods utilized are: focus groups, interviews, surveys, and observation. The study emphasizes the inclusion of participant voices and their positioned expertise.2

The Gems of Jazz is a prospective TV series that features local New Orleans Jazz musicians. The purpose of the show, created and hosted by Virgile Beddok, is to look into the lives of the people who make the New Orleans Jazz scene all that it is, and has been. This paper delves into each stage of the creative and production processes that enabled the completion of this pilot episode which features master drummer Herlin Riley as a guest.

Many calamities in history like hurricanes, tornado and flooding are proof to the large scale impact they cause to the life and economy. Computer simulation and GIS helps in modeling a real world scenario, which assists in evacuation planning, damage assessment, assistance and reconstruction. For achieving computer simulation and modeling there is a need for accurate classification of ground objects. One of the most significant aspects of this research is that it achieves improved classification for regions within which light detection and ranging (LiDAR) has low spatial resolution. This thesis describes a method for accurate classification of bare ground, water body, roads, vegetation, and structures using LiDAR data and aerial Infrared imagery. The most basic step for any terrain modeling application is filtering which is classification of ground and non-ground points. We present an integrated systematic method that makes classification of terrain and non-terrain points effective. Our filtering method uses the geometric feature of the triangle meshes created from LiDAR samples and calculate the confidence for every point. Geometric homogenous blocks and confidence are derived from TIN model and gridded LiDAR samples. The results from two representations are used in a classifier to determine if the block belongs ground or otherwise. Another important step is detection of water body, which is based on the LiDAR sample density of the region. Objects like tress and bare ground are characterized by the geometric features present in the LiDAR and the color features in the infrared imagery. These features are fed into a SVM classifier which detects bare-ground in the given region. Similarly trees are extracted using another trained SVM classifier. Once we obtain bare-grounds and trees, roads are extracted by removing the bare grounds. Structures are identified by the properties of non-ground segments. Experiments were conducted using LiDAR samples and Infrared imagery from the city of New Orleans. We evaluated the influence of different parameters to the classification. Water bodies were extracted successfully using density measures. Experiments showed that fusion of geometric properties and confidence levels resulted into efficient classification of ground and non-ground regions. Classification of vegetation using SVM was promising and effective using the features like height variation, HSV, angle etc. It is demonstrated that our methods successfully classified the region by using LiDAR data in a complex urban area with high-rise buildings.

<p>När Orkanen Katrina härjade i New Orleans förlorade över tusen människor sina liv och ännu fler människor förlorade sina hem och bostäder. Denna händelse fick stor plats i både svensk och amerikansk massmedia.. I amerikans press har det hävdats att svarta människor ”plundrar” medan vita människor ”letar mat”. Vi är intresserade av hur händelsen, med tyngdpunkt på etnicitet och nationalitet, skildras i svensk media.</p>

Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005 and drastically altered the city of New Orleans causing the most damage to minority and low socioeconomic status communities such as the Lower Ninth Ward. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, African American women in the New Orleans constituted the group most marginalized in society. Following Hurricane Katrina, several studies have explored Hurricane Katrina and disaster recovery in New Orleans. However, few studies have explored gender as it relates to natural disasters and recovery. Therefore, this study explores the experiences of African American women with disaster recovery in the Lower Ninth Ward.

När Orkanen Katrina härjade i New Orleans förlorade över tusen människor sina liv och ännu fler människor förlorade sina hem och bostäder. Denna händelse fick stor plats i både svensk och amerikansk massmedia.. I amerikans press har det hävdats att svarta människor ”plundrar” medan vita människor ”letar mat”. Vi är intresserade av hur händelsen, med tyngdpunkt på etnicitet och nationalitet, skildras i svensk media.

This is a research-based thesis building upon the study conducted over the past two years with Dr. Elizabeth English on the Buoyant Foundation Project (BFP). The BFP is currently developing an amphibious foundation system to retrofit vernacular wooden ‘shotgun’ houses in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. This neighbourhood was chosen because of its unique cultural heritage and the severe, but recoverable, damage incurred in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The BFP system will allow homes to float when flooding occurs, rising and descending vertically to avoid flood damage. It provides an alternative solution to permanent static elevation, the mitigation strategy currently recommended by the United States federal government. The thesis will demonstrate how the Buoyant Foundation Project is a culturally supportive, technically feasible, economical, sustainable and resilient form of flood mitigation for post-Katrina New Orleans.