Continuing revenue sharing from offshore oil development and money from BP fines will bring more than $1.5 billion to coastal parishes in the next four decades. State officials hope strong regulation coupled with the prospect of matching money will have parish leaders proposing projects to benefit coastal protection.

It’s a simple concept: The less rainwater that gets into the city’s drainage system, the easier it is on the pumping equipment. And researchers now know that keeping our water table charged helps reduce subsidence. An increasingly common way to address both is the use of surfaces that let water seep through into the ground below.

When you live in a sub-tropical zone with no shortage of swamps and other wetlands, you get pretty good at looking out for and controlling mosquitoes. New Orleans officials say their tried-and-true methods of vigilance and attack make them well equipped to address the potential spread of the Zika virus.

If global temperatures rise less than 2 degrees Celsius by 2100, little will change in Antarctica, which means sea-level rise could be manageable and Louisiana’s coastal plan might succeed. Fail at that goal, and the result could be more than six feet of sea-level rise by 2100, innundating most of Louisiana’s southern third, even with the master plan finished.

Green will become the favorite color for thousands of New Orleans property owners when the new FEMA flood maps finally become official at the end of the month. That’s because it codes areas that will move out of flood zones and into areas with no insurance requirements – and the new map shows it washing over large sections of the city.