Terrebonne Parish Harbor of Refuge
US EPA
Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana
2023
A Need for Specialized Climate Adaptation Infrastructure Along the Gulf Coast: Fishers and shrimpers, as the frontline of coastal foodways, are under increasing threat from hurricanes.
Partners
Awards
2025 ASLA Louisiana President's Award of Excellence for Analysis and Planning
Design Team
The seafood industry is the heart of the culture and economy of coastal Louisiana, generating $2.4 billion annually. This industry, however, is urgently at risk as intensifying hurricanes threaten the livelihoods of fishers and shrimpers who are the backbone of the supply chain. Without their operations the regional economic and cultural fabric unravels. Yet they are the most vulnerable part of the system—facing the greatest risk economically. Most fishers in Louisiana are small, independent operators that own their boats. Even if they have insurance to replace a sunken boat, which many don’t, it may take a year to get a replacement built after a hurricane. Protecting these workers and their boats is not just an economic necessity, it is an ecological and social imperative.
The concept of a harbor of refuge, originally developed during the LA SAFE planning process supported by the State of Louisiana and its partners, is to protect the safety and livelihoods of these frontline workers by providing shelter for their boats during a hurricane. This study, commissioned by the US Environmental Protection Agency, pushes the idea further to consider a strategy for an entire network of them.
When hurricanes approach, fishers face an impossible choice—risk losing their boats or return to an inland port, losing significant income. A safe harbor network would provide safety inside flood protection systems, strategically located close to fishing grounds yet secure during a storm event. Importantly, harbors also serve as ecological safeguards, reducing damage caused when boats break loose, collide with levees, or sink, spilling fuel and contaminating fragile wetlands.
Current docking infrastructure in Terrebonne Parish.
Conventional planning often starts with a criteria-based, top-down approach, relying heavily on data to determine the most efficient location for a project. The landscape architects took a different path. The team approached the process as searchers, learning directly from the people whose lives and livelihoods depend on the Gulf and defining with them the criteria for a harbor of refuge. The stories of shrimpers who have weathered hurricanes, local authorities responsible for emergency response, and environmental stewards who know the delicate balance of coastal ecosystems were integral to the process. This approach led to a more nuanced understanding of how economic prosperity is tied to ecological health along the Gulf Coast.
Using Terrebonne Parish as the focus area, sites were assessed in three bayous to determine the criteria for prime locations for the harbors. Eventually, one location was selected to test a prototype harbor design and conduct a cost-benefit analysis. The resulting framework plan establishes replicable criteria for site selection, and a kit of parts for the design of harbors that balances the urgent need to protect boats with providing additional community and ecosystem benefits, demonstrating how resilience infrastructure can work in harmony with coastal systems rather than against them.
The cost-benefit of the prototype harbor of refuge was easily offset by the value of and loss of production due to sunken boats, and the catastrophic infrastructural and ecological damage caused when these vessels break loose during a hurricane. The project is not just about Terrebonne Parish; it offers a scalable model for a coast-wide network of harbors, ensuring that Louisiana’s seafood industry—and the communities and ecosystems that depend on it—can withstand future storms.
Typical homes along the bayous of Terrebonne Parish.
