How to Re-Engineer the Louisiana Coast
Interesting piece on a very different approach to Louisiana's coastal restoration - from Popular Mechanics:
For eons, the Mississippi River meandered across its low-lying delta, leaving fertile deposits of sand, silt and nutrients. For the past two centuries, however, engineers have tried to tame the waterway by raising levees to prevent flooding, straightening and deepening channels to aid navigation, and building complex control structures to regulate flow. Now, instead of spilling over its banks during spring and summer floods, the river and its precious cargo of sediment jet straight into the Gulf of Mexico, starving the coast of life-giving soils.
As a result, 1875 square miles of wetlands vanished in the 20th century. Marshes fell apart like rotting cloth. Beaches drowned. Open water winked in the sunshine where crops once grew. Experts estimate that in the first half of the 21st century another 673 square miles will be lost.
To restore the ravaged coast, scientists, engineers and conservationists are lining up behind a slate of engineering projects, including dredging that will move tons of sediment through miles of pipeline, and local programs to hand-plant marsh vegetation stem by stem. None, however, seem to hold as much promise as large-scale river diversions. Or generate as much controversy. READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>
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