Richard Campanella: A New Look at New Orleans
Put simply, Richard Campanella says his job is to figure out why things are where they are.
Campanella is the associate director of the Center for Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane. His work includes using GIS/remote sensing to conduct research projects for such varied clients as geologists, engineers, entomologists, and sociologists. He is a geographer and mapping scientist, studying why certain phenomena are distributed in certain spatial patterns.
The work is especially important now, Campanella says, as the city is rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina. He is acting as a consultant to the preparation of a unified rebuilding plan for the city. He also teaches classes as his schedule permits.
In his evenings and weekends, Campanella takes on another challenge: researching and writing about the historical geography of New Orleans. His most recent book, Geographies of New Orleans: Urban Fabrics Before the Storm, is a compelling look at why New Orleans became the city it is, searching for clues in the city's geography and structures. Campanella not only researched and wrote the book, he also took all of the pictures and created all of the maps and charts. The effort took him five years.
A native of Brooklyn, Campanella says he has had a lifelong fascination with New Orleans, which he calls "an enigmatic and fascinating place." The city is filled with hidden clues to its past, and finding and interpreting these clues is Campanella's challenge. He worries that disasters like Katrina, coupled with the fires the city has suffered since the hurricane, will wipe out these clues before he and other scientists have a chance to record and study them. One of his previous books, New Orleans Then and Now, contrasted scenes of present-day (pre-Katrina) New Orleans with photographs of the same scenes in the past.
Campanella sees the city up close every day, rain or shine, when he bicycles to Tulane from his home in the Bywater, a 14-mile roundtrip. He's done it for four years now, keeping himself trim and avoiding the traffic, parking and pollution of commuting.
Campanella's background includes two years in the U.S. Peace Corps, which he spent in Honduras. His projects there included launching a cloud forest reserve and working with farmers to build tree nurseries. He calls it a "very intense and rewarding experience" to build something that is still going to this day.
The work done at the Center for Bioenvironmental Research will become increasingly important as such factors as rising sea levels, eroding coasts, suburbanization and urban decay attack cities like New Orleans, which is one of the country's great historic port cities. "This city is important to the world," he says, "and the Center is important to the city."
Campanella and his wife, who runs a business in the French Market, like to take what little free time they have to take day trips and hikes around the region.
