Lowermost Mississippi River Management Program (LMRMP)
Lower Mississippi River, Louisiana
Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA)
Project Overview
The goal of LMRMP is “to create an integrated, science-based management strategy for the Lower Mississippi River that results in sustaining and restoring wetlands in the ecosystem that is affected by current navigation and flood control systems, and in turn sustaining the Lower Mississippi River navigation and flood control systems through ecosystem restoration.” By strengthening partnerships, improving/developing technical tools and understanding, and evaluating approaches to managing the river, LMRMP aims to advance holistic management of water and sediment resources that yields practical benefits across multiple interests. The program is funded through a $9.3 million grant from the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act (RESTORE Act).
Project Work and Royal Solutions
The Royal team supports CPRA by providing both program management and technical expertise to ensure that the 28 individual technical tasks are well coordinated, and the overall program operates smoothly, meets its objectives, is technically sound, and yields meaningful information to inform future management decisions related to arguably the most complex, critical, and cross-cutting component of Louisiana’s navigation, flood risk management, and ecosystem restoration challenges.
Managing such a large effort with individual yet interdependent tasks, many of which have different schedules and task leads, comes with challenges such as a delay in one task impacting several other tasks. Royal developed a comprehensive task tracking file and protocol, and our team directly supports the LMRMP team lead by meticulously monitoring the status and needs of individual tasks, organizing and prioritizing action items, and maintaining close and effective communication to ensure potential issues are raised in a timely manner. Managing such a robust effort also requires clear and consistent communication and coordination. Royal helped establish and maintain defined lines of communication across LMRMP task teams not only to leverage knowledge and resources among the broader team, but also to minimize potential duplication of effort. We also facilitate coordination between the LMRMP team and other CPRA personnel, state and federal agencies, and stakeholder groups as requested.
This project is unique in that it aims to move toward a more holistic approach for managing ecosystem restoration and protection, flood risk, and navigation associated with the Lower Mississippi River, and as such spans an array of disciplines such as hydrology, sediment dynamics, ecology, industry, and economics. Not only does Royal provide program management support to CPRA, but we also provide technical support on tasks that range from identifying potential management strategies for the Lower Mississippi River to developing and applying numerical models, as well as evaluating previous deep draft navigation dredging and developing a regional sediment management strategy. We accomplished these tasks by drawing on our wide breadth of in-house expertise as needed to participate in technical scoping meetings and task-specific calls, reviewing and providing feedback on technical reports and data products, and serving in lead roles on various task components. For example, using a “Bid Formulation” methodology for the base cost, Royal personnel developed and applied cost estimating tools for a suite of coastal management strategies in collaboration with CPRA and The Water Institute to support the larger Regional Sediment Management Below Venice task.
Royal’s efforts have been well received by CPRA, and our familiarity of the program and individual tasks has allowed us to serve as ‘extension of staff’ as needed to assist with administrative tasks such as fulfilling programmatic reporting requirements to RESTORE. Given our knowledge of the tasks, we also help prepare outreach materials, including presentations for both technical and lay audiences as well as content for the program website.
