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Module 5- Assignment 1 The Case for or Against New Orleans

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    A CASE FOR OR AGAINST NEW ORLEANS 1 Module 5 - Assignment 1 The Case for or Against New Orleans Sometimes one’s choices may involve catastrophic decisions and bear great risk and yet there can be no clear answer. For example, if a person gets a divorce, shutters a plant, sells a losing investment, or closes their business, will he or she be better off? The following case incorporates nearly all of the material you have covered this far and presents an example of one such choice where nearly all of the alternatives have a significant downside risk. Review the following information from the article “A Cost - Benefit Analysis of the New Orleans Flood Protection System” by Stéphane Hallegatte (2005):  Hallegatte, an environmentalist, assigns a probability (p) of a Katrina - like hurricane of 1/130 in his cost - benefit analysis for flood protection. However, the levees that protect New Orleans also put other regions at greater risk. You may assume the frequency of other floods is greater than Katrina - like events (Vastag & Rein, 2011).  The new levees that were built in response to Katrina cost approximately fourteen billion dollars (in 2010). This is in addition to the direct costs of Katrina (eighty - one billion dollars in 2005).  50 percent of New Orleans is at or below sea level.  A 100 - year event means that there is a 63 percent chance that such an event will occur within a 100 - year period. Part A  Analyze the economics of New Orleans in light of the above parameters and develop your own Cost - Benefit Analysis (CBA) for rebuilding.  Evaluate the value of the CBA for each constituency and integrate these estimates into a scenario model and/or decision tree. Analyze the results.  Clearly each of these constituencies may both overlap and be prey to a variety of group dynamics internally. For one of these options, discuss the decision pitfalls to which they may be susceptible and make a recommendation on how to alleviate these pressures.  Starting with your CBA, estimate the relevant expected utility for the interested constituencies . Part B  Make a case for or against rebuilding the city of New Orleans. This should be an executive summary be concise and brief. Include exhibits.  Whether you are for or against, discuss how social heuristics could be used to your advantage, both ethically and unethically, in making your case. You may choose to fill the role  Write an 8 – 12 - page report in Word format. Apply APA standards to citation of sources. Use proper spelling and grammar throughout, and keep the text legible and balanced with visuals. Use the following file naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M5_A1.docof one of the constituents, if you prefer.

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    A CASE FOR OR AGAINST NEW ORLEANS 2 Abstract This paper will look at a number of contributing factors that will them make a recommendation for rebuilding or not rebuilding New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. This recommendation will be presented in two parts, Part A will analyze the economics of New Orleans and evaluate the value based on a Cost - Benefit Analysis in order to make a firm recommendation. By analyzing a Cost - Benefit Analysis, it will be represented by the following constituents: the residence of New Orleans, the residents of the surrounding floods plains, the Mayor of New Orleans, the federal government agency known as Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the taxpayers. This paper will look at scenario models, risk management models, and decision trees to support the decisions and analysis for the recommendation to rebuild or not to rebuild New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina took an enormous toll on the residents of New Orleans. Over 1200 lives were lost and countless injuries were suffered. The loss of revenue from the shutdown of businesses, loss of homes and possessions of residents caused much pain and human suffering. This paper will conclude with an executive summary which will summarize the recommendation for or against the rebuilding of New Orleans.

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    A CASE FOR OR AGAINST NEW ORLEANS 3 Module 5 - Assignment 1 : The Case for or Against New Orleans Background Prior to Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was a booming economy that was based on its tourism. The city had a lot of offerings from the many restaurants, festivals, to the great weather. Because of these positive attributes, New Orleans tourism was a thriving market. There were additional economies for New Orleans, which were the mining industry, transportation industries, and warehousing industries that were based along its waterways. New Orleans was is also one of the largest ports in the world, as more products came through this port than any other port in the world. Additionally, there are many colleges in the area that add to the economic bottom line of the city. The culture of Jazz, Blues, Creole cooking and Gumbo are a large part of the history, which is the melting pot of culture of New Orleans. Katrina hit many southern cities. Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi were all hit but the most damage occurred in New Orleans. With the city mostly under sea level, this presented a large part of the problem when Hurricane Katrina hit. The majority of the city was flooded. More than $200 billion dollars in damages were estimated. The loss of life, property, and business were devastating on the city of New Orleans. This natural disaster disturbed the economic system of New Orleans as well as markets all aroun d the United States (U.S.). The trending effect was a loss of 100,000 jobs in ten

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