Coastal Protection and
Restoration Authority

The Water Campus

On Tuesday, December 17, 2013, Governor Bobby Jindal, officials from the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA), Department of Economic Development and the Baton Rouge Area Foundation (BRAF) joined leaders from the City of Baton Rouge, The Water Institute of the Gulf, Louisiana State University and other coastal research institutes to unveil plans for the establishment of The Water Campus in Baton Rouge.

The campus will serve as a hub for public, private, non-profit and academic coastal sectors to collaborate and develop innovative solutions for challenges that affect Louisiana’s coastal communities and wetlands.

The government, academic and private sector collaboration will then allow these solutions to be exported to other coastal areas and communities across the world. The Water Campus will also serve as a catalyst to link downtown Baton Rouge with LSU, providing tremendous economic development opportunities for the Capital Region.

The development of the Water Campus will be funded through a partnership between the State of Louisiana, the City of Baton Rouge and the Baton Rouge Area Foundation.

The initial phase of development includes the dedication of approximately 30 acres of land and the investment of approximately $45 million for the construction of three facilities.

The planned facilities include a new education and research center on the old Baton Rouge Municipal dock and the River Modeling Center, which will feature one of the largest and most accurate moving physical river models in the world. The campus will also feature an office building to house CPRA and other coastal researchers.

An integrated community focused on researching, engineering and implementing solutions to protect coastal communities and sustain coastal wetlands will position Louisiana as a world leader in the development of coastal solutions and expertise that will continue to be exported to address coastal concerns around the globe.