Dredging and sand berm construction in coastal Louisiana. Photo source: ©© Louisiana GOHSEP
Excerpts;
As Louisiana’s wetlands continue to disappear at an alarming rate, a new study has pinpointed the human-made structures that disrupt the natural water flow and threaten these important ecosystems. The findings have important implications for New Orleans and other coastal cities that rely on coastal wetlands to serve as buffer from destructive extreme weather events.
Scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science found that human-made canals limit the natural tidal inundation process in roughly 45 percent of the state’s coastline, and disruptions from levees accounted for 15 percent…
Read Full Article, Science Daily
Coastal Louisiana added to NOAA Sea Level Rise Viewer, NOAA (12-21-2015)
Scientists, regional managers, coastal planners, businesses and residents of Louisiana can now use NOAA’s popular Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding Impacts Viewer to assess their risks for coastal flooding under a variety of different scenarios…
Gulf Eats Away at Coast Outside Levee-Protected New Orleans, AP (09-14-2015)
In the past century, more than 1,880 square miles of Louisiana land has turned into open water — an area nearly the size of Delaware. And the loss continues unabated, with an estimated 17 square miles disappearing on average each year…
Piling sand to stop erosion ultimately made the land sink, study says; NOLA (12-26-2015)
Louisiana Rethinks Its Sand Berms, The New York Times (11-09-2010)
A new study underscores the unique difficulties Louisiana faces in maintaining its fragile delta and keeping the sea at bay: Researchers found work to replenish an eroding shoreline by pumping onto it massive amounts of sand itself caused the land to sink…
Lost Louisiana: The Race to Reclaim Vanished Land Back From The Sea, Guardian UK (10-15-2014)
Louisiana’s Moon Shot, Propublica (12-09-2014)
Oral Histories Capture Impact of Eroding Louisiana Coast, AP / KSL (11-08-2014)
New Land on the Louisiana Coast, NASA (02-17-2015)
While most of the delta plain of the Mississippi River Delta is losing ground, new land is forming in Atchafalaya Bay at the mouths of the Wax Lake Outlet and the Atchafalaya River…
