Essay On Louisiana Coast

People living in Miami are in the face of danger, and for the most part they are not aware of it. Due to high population, Miami is the fourth largest city to become affected by sea level rise. (Ankum et al.) In the next 32-50 years, sea level is expected to rise by as much as two feet. (Ankum et al.) This two-foot rise will have detrimental effects on the urban settings of Miami. The amount of soil erosion that is undergoing at our beaches will greatly increase if a two-foot rise occurs. At a four-foot rise, road connectivity would begin to become affected. At a six-foot rise, Southern Florida would no longer be habitable as it would, for the most part, be underwater. Not much is being invested in mitigation efforts, most of what is being done are short term solutions. Instead of coming up with ideas to prevent and try to slow down the effects of climate change on our environment, we are focusing on ideas such as building up a sea wall, relocating power plants, and redesigning structures.

Beach nourishment is one way of replenishing our beach. However, more need to be done, such as habitat protection and refurbishment projects to restore the health of our coastal ecosystems. This requires planning, funding and time.

The barrier islands of Louisiana are vital for the protection of Louisiana’s coastal communities and its natural resources. They are the first line of defense from summer’s hurricanes and winter’s storms. However, barrier islands are no longer building naturally. The previously-illustrated cycle has been interrupted by “reoccupation” to the natural processes that drive it. For “reoccupation”, stage five of the barrier island termination model, to occur, completely natural conditions that allow the river to rebuild its delta are required. These conditions do not exist because people have altered the course of the Mississippi River to control it from flooding and for navigational purposes.

Some amount of natural erosion is necessary to provide the sediment for beaches in estuaries and coastal bays. However, excessive erosion has occurred in the past due to development. Industrial and private development along the world’s coastlines has increased dramatically since the 1970s (Nepf). Developers and builders completed much of this construction without taking into account the effects of coastal erosion. New buildings were often placed too close to the existing shoreline so that

Flooding of the settlement was problematic. By 1812, the settlers had built miles of levees on the banks of the river. For the next two hundred years, the surrounding wetlands were drained to eliminate swamps filled with yellow fever carrying mosquitoes and to encourage economic development. Draining water from peaty soils encouraged subsidence. The land which was just inches above sea level to begin with steadily sank. In combat of this, higher and stronger levees were built, tightening the straight jacket already placed upon the Mississippi River. The massive flooding of 1928 brought further flood control systems implemented by the Army Corps of Engineers with Congressional blessing. By the 1950’s, dramatic rates of land loss in Louisiana’s coastal zone stretched across 300 miles from Texas to Mississippi and inland 50 miles. (Tibbetts)

Levees are very helpful in a lot of ways and are needed to have a safe place to live, but they hurt the marshes that surround Louisiana. The levees that surround the Mississippi River are very good at their job and keep the river contained but with the river contained, there is no natural flooding that occurs in the coastal marshes and without the natural flooding, there is no depositing of sediment that replenishes and builds up the marsh. This creates an upset in the balance of land loss and land gained. The subsidence due to the lack of new sediment accounts for 53% of the land loss in Louisiana over the past

The loss of Louisiana coastal land is one of the most major factors in our environment today. Louisiana has already loss 1,880 square miles of land in the past eight decades. This problem is effecting the state funding to help solve the problem before the state lose more coastal land. Human disturbance has had a massive impact on the balance of wetland growth and decline. (Wilson, 2013). In order to stop this situation the state needs to have a stronger structural protection for the coast line. (Wilson, 2013).

(in other words if it wasn’t for the Atchafalaya river Louisiana and the cultural heart of the Cajun Country would be screwed) The maintenance of the river as a passable channel of the river has been a big project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for over a century. Natural development of the river channel, coupled with channel training and maintenance for control and navigation, have combined to isolate the river from the swamp. The river valley makes the Atchafalaya Basin and Atchafalaya Swamp located in southern Louisiana close to the Gulf of Mexico. The river is shaped near Simmesport at the confluence of the Red River with the Mississippi, where the Mississippi connects to the Red River by a 7-mile-long canalized old stream part of the recent stream management Structure. It receives the water from the Red River as well as roughly 30% of the water of the lower Mississippi the different seventieth continues in its main channel to the southeast. The volume the Atchafalaya receives from the Mississippi is controlled by the Old stream management Structure, Louisiana, and in times of extreme flooding the Morganza Spillway any downstream. During the 2011 Mississippi stream floods, the Old stream advanced was discharging over 706,000 cubic feet per second (hints that’s a lot) into the Atchafalaya River, and the

The levee system has disrupted the natural deposits that are left from the overflow of the river.2

The loss of Louisiana coastal land is one of the most, major factors in our environment today. Louisiana has already lost 1,880 square miles of land in the past eight decades. This problem is effecting the state funding to help solve the problem before the state lose more coastal land. In order to stop this situation, the state needs to have a stronger structural protection for the coastline (Wilson, 2013).

Louisiana’s Gulf Coast is eroding into the sea, and by 2100 most of Southeast Louisiana could be completely underwater. Not only does this threaten human and animal habitats, but also the energy, shipping, fishing, and tourist industries that have made this region of the U.S. a valuable part of the national economy (Marshall, 2014). In the past 200 years, half of the nation’s wetland habitats have been lost due to natural and manmade processes. Louisiana’s wetlands make up 40 percent of the total wetlands in the continental United States. 80 percent of losses, nationally, are of Louisiana’s coast (Williams).

Climate change creates significant impacts in the Australian context: in considering sea level rise is one of the most critical condition and as per the IPCC report, in 2100 it will increase by79 centimeters (Department of climate change, 2009). Further, it enhances natural hazards affect on the coastal region as flood, inundation, erosion, and storm surges, which will be a significant threat to the coastal community (Button et al.2013). In addition, sea level rise causes a significant change to beaches, coral reefs, estuaries, wetlands and low-lying islands.

In an attempt to combat erosion and interest more people in visiting this area an ongoing project has been implemented along Long Beach and Nutgrove Beach. The project aims to reduce the rate of erosion and make the area a desirable place for people to visit for many years to come. One of the most recent additions

Humans have a huge impact on the state of the earth, but it is often easy to forget about the damage that we cause. This is especially true when one feels that they are not affected in a direct or substantial way. Chelsea Harvey (2017) brings to light one way in which humans are directly affected by the damages we have caused to coral reefs. In the wake of hurricane Irma, communities in South Florida struggled to return to their normal lives. A great deal of damage was present along the coastal area, and one prominent source was intense flooding. However, it is speculated that the severity of flooding could have been negated with the support of a strong coral reef storm buffer. Harvey (2017) mentions that most of the energy from incoming waves,

El Niño refers to the large-scale climatic relationship between the ocean and atmosphere, linked to a sporadic warming in sea temperatures across the central and east-central Equatorial Pacific, (What are El Nino and La Nina, 2016). Effects of the El Nino typically develop over North America before the winter months, and include warmer than average temperatures over western and central Canada and The United States. The force of El Niño can significantly influence weather patters, marine conditions, and a large proportion of coastal environments, (What are El Nino and La Nina, 2016). Relatively new information considering impacts of El Niño due to warming temperatures has introduced new ideas that El Niño has a direct effect on coastal landforms in the state of California, (earth a dynamic structure, 2003). Scholars argue that the presence and strengthening of the El Niño have detrimental impacts on coastal environments in California, (earth a dynamic structure, 2003; Sanders, 2016). These impacts include cliff erosion and the collapsing of cliffs, bigger waves eroding away beaches and the coast, landslides, and sea level rise, (Richmond & Gibbs, 1998). Coastal Erosion is a result of many physical processes occurring on earth, El Niño is just one of the processes that significantly destroy coastal landforms, but climate change plays a major role in increasing the likelihood of coastal erosion due to El Niño.