Natural hazard analysis and mitigation since Katrina: are we ready for the future?

ABSTRACT Hurricane Katrina was a pivotal event that dramatically impacted policies and practice with respect to natural hazards. The massive human life and economic losses stimulated rapt attention to what went wrong and why, which in turn resulted in dramatic shifts in both engineering practice and the policies that guide it. This also accelerated national flood safety assessment and future strategy both in the United States and in The Netherlands. It is instructive to compare natural hazard policies prior to Katrina to those that arose following Katrina. How well have these changes prepared us for the future? It is becoming clear that the past is no longer prolog. Now, two decades later, our attention is turning to the growing uncertainty, to include non-stationarity in both natural and social processes. Are policy and practice evolving fast enough? How well are we postured to deal with the spectrum of potential futures?