Restoration of the Mississippi Delta: Lessons from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

Day, John W.; Boesch, Donald F.; Clairain, Ellis J.; Kemp, G. Paul; Laska, Shirley; Mitsch, William J.; Orth, Kenneth; Mashriqui, Hassan; Reed, Denise J.; Shabman, Leonard; Simenstad, Charles A.; Streever, Bill; Twilley, Robert R.; Watson, Chester C.; Wells, John T.; Whigham, Dennis F.

doi:10.1126/science.1137030

Cited by 675 publications

(428 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…It improves soil consistency and longevity, keeping marshes and mangroves healthy 7,8 . Yet little is known about the optimal amount of mud needed to support freshwater and saltwater ecosystems.…”

Section: Starved Landsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change: Protect the world's deltas

Giosan

Syvitski

Constantinescu

et al. 2014

Nature

575

345

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Section: Starved Landsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change: Protect the world's deltas

Giosan

Syvitski

Constantinescu

et al. 2014

Nature

575

345

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“…Human activities have upset this balance in modern deltas, increasing effective sea level rise [Ericson et al, 2006] by enhancing naturally occurring subsidence and inhibiting delta plain deposition [Syvitski et al, 2009]. In the case of the Mississippi Delta, upstream sediment loss due to dams may preclude full restoration of the delta [Blum and Roberts, 2009], but diversions of the river could create significant land [Kim et al, 2009] and coastal habitat [Day et al, 2007].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delta allometry: Growth laws for river deltas

Wolinsky¹,

Edmonds

Martin³

et al. 2010

Geophysical Research Letters

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[1] Under projected scenarios of sea-level rise, subsidence, and sediment starvation many deltas around the world are expected to drown. Delta growth dynamics, which determine the ability of a delta to adapt to these changes, are poorly understood due to the difficulty of measuring change in slowly evolving landscapes. We use timeseries imagery of experimental, numerical, and field-scale deltas to derive four laws that govern the growth of riverdominated deltas. Land area grows at a constant rate in the absence of relative sea level change, while wetted area keeps pace, maintaining a constant wetted fraction over the delta surface. Scaling of edge-lengths versus areas suggests delta shorelines are nonfractal, even though the channel network is fractal. Consequently channel-edge length, which provides critical habitat, grows more rapidly than delta area. These laws provide a blueprint for delta growth that will aid in delta restoration and help predict how existing deltas will evolve. Citation: Wolinsky, M.

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“…River deltas react dynamically to both external and internal forcing [Heller et al, 2001;Sheets et al, 2002;Kim et al, 2006;Paola et al, 2011], strongly affecting human communities by their responses to contemporary and future environmental change [Syvitski and Saito, 2007;Syvitski et al, 2009]. Predictive understanding of delta evolution is therefore a valuable tool to forecast future deltaic change and for justifying delta stewardship strategies [Day et al, 2007;Kim et al, 2009;Paola et al, 2011].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The morphology and evolution of channels on the Wax Lake Delta, Louisiana, USA

Shaw

Mohrig

Whitman³

2013

JGR Earth Surface

104

108

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[1] River deltas are classic depositional systems, but a growing body of literature shows that their channel networks can be erosional. Furthermore, this erosion can attack channel beds of consolidated mud that acts as bedrock. To better understand the channel networks of natural deltas and engineered river diversions, we investigate bathymetric and planimetric change, bed cover, and sediment transport in the Wax Lake Delta (WLD) in coastal Louisiana, USA. Channels have eroded up to 40% of modern flow depth between the WLD's initiation in 1973 and 1999. Aerial image analysis shows that channels have widened by 11% between 1991 and 2009, forcing the downstream migration of islands. Channel beds are composed of 85-98% muddy bedrock, with the remainder covered by alluvial sands. Water velocity, grain size, and suspended sand concentration measurements during the 2009 spring flood show that almost all available grain sizes are transported in suspension. Flow was supply limited during this period, with the calculated sand concentration at the height of the bed load layer is 1-4 orders of magnitude smaller than predicted for saturated sand transport. We test "the cover effect" and "the tools effect" previously proposed for bedrock erosion in upland river channels. Bedrock erosion and alluvial cover are anti-correlated (the cover effect), but the observations do not closely follow previously proposed relationships. The difference in erosion rate between clear water and sand-rich water shows that abrasion by sand (the tools effect) accounts for 51% ± 56% of bedrock erosion when it is present.

show abstract

Restoration of the Mississippi Delta: Lessons from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

Cited by 675 publications

References 28 publications

Climate change: Protect the world's deltas

Climate change: Protect the world's deltas

Delta allometry: Growth laws for river deltas

The morphology and evolution of channels on the Wax Lake Delta, Louisiana, USA

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