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New Orleans has had to deal with the difficult questions of its recovery since hurricane Katrina. With a specific geography, many mistakes related to the lack of risk prevention as well as the processes of its urbanization, one of the most livable “but vulnerable” cities of the US evolved into a ruined metropolis. Efforts to deal with the recovery of its physical and human systems had to face complex issues involving many aspects: citizen's wishes, planners’ strategies, “financial and administrative” capacity to recover” fragmented between authorities and many agencies. Nevertheless, one needs to remember that the common goal in order to reach a sustainable urban re-development is to enhance the resiliency of the physical environment as well as quality of life, through risk prevention as well as an adaptation to natural events.