How Did The United States Affect The Mississippi River Region Over The Past 100 Years?

Sustainability relates to the ongoing capacity of Earth to maintain all life, which means developing ways to ensure that all resources on Earth are used and managed responsibly so they can be maintained for future generations.

Mississippi River Delta region over nearly a century from 1830-1930 and beyond, for the tale of man versus Ol' Man River just keeps rollin' on.

The Atchafalaya travels approximately 300 miles beside the Mississippi River. South West from the Red River in Louisiana, and flows South one hundred and forty miles to the Atchafalaya Bay in Louisiana. For as long as people can remember, the Atchafalaya River Basin had attempted taking over the flow of the Mississippi River, coming close to becoming its main distributary instead as it reaches the Gulf of Mexico in south Louisiana. “This dynamic environment, comprising almost a million acres of the lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley and Mississippi River Deltaic Plain, is perhaps best known for its expansive swamp environments dominated by bald cypress, water tupelo, and alligators. But the Atchafalaya River Basin contains a wide range of habitats and one of the highest levels of biodiversity on the North American continent.” (Piazza) The River is was so threatening to the Mississippi River that it had to be blockaded by dams, locks, and levees.

As of 2016, the population of Mississippi is estimated to be 2.99 million. Its population density ranks 32nd in the United States. The first permanent settlement in Mississippi was established in 1699 by the French near what is now Ocean Springs. Natchez is the oldest permanent settlement along the Mississippi River, which was settled in 1716. Natchez was once was home to 500 millionaires, exceeding every other city in the US with the exception of New York City. Mississippi is known for having farm raised catfish.

The Mississippi River is highly regarded as the most important river in Louisiana. One of the lesser known rivers is just as phenomenal, however. The Atchafalaya River (pronounced At-cha-fa-lie-uh), which is adjacent to the Louisianan southern half of the Mississippi River, is so much of a phenomena that the United States Army Corps has been put in charge of controlling the river!

The Mississippi River influences the states of Louisiana in numerous ways. The river can be both beneficial and harmful to the state. It may help with industries, but at the same time it may be harming by taking away from Louisiana’s coastline. While erosion is widely considered to be a destructive occurrence, it does have some necessary features. For example, erosion provides many nutrients for animals living in the water, and it creates new deltas that many animals live in. Since the beginning of Louisiana, the Mississippi River has been a crucial factor in the creation and the development of Louisiana’s economy. It has helped with things like trade and the growth of crops. The Mississippi is also significant in the way Louisiana is shaped

Louisiana has many wetlands, rivers, lakes, and coastal plains. One river that stretches over a great part of Louisiana is the Mississippi River. Lake Pontchartrain is the

The river plays an important role in North Carolina’s estuaries found in the Albemarle-Pamlico Sound as it dumps its nutrient-dense waters into the estuaries to feed the system. One of only three rivers to be totally contained within North Carolina’s borders, the river has been noted to have the widest mouth in the continental

Although there were a few doubts at the time, the Louisiana Purchase was extremely beneficial to the United States. It was “One of the most colossal land transactions in history”(1), containing modern-day Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska; as well as parts of Minnesota, Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, and two Canadian provinces: Alberta and Saskatchewan. It doubled the amount of land the U.S. owned. “Bigger land area also meant for more farming lands and more places for various business enterprises”(2). With the expansion of the United States farther west, came the total availability of New Orleans and the Mississippi River. This provided security and protection for the states east of the Mississippi and opened up

Many communities are suffering due to coastal erosion. One example is the village of Cocodrie, LA in Terrebonne Parish. This village’s small population and its 220 residential and commercial buildings are surrounded by marshes. In Cocodrie, there is no barrier against hurricanes. Local marinas play host to recreational and commercial fishing, and The Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium is located in Cocodrie. This facility of around 100,000 square ft houses laboratories, classrooms, and a research center. Infrastructure that will be affected by coastal erosion includes paved highway, dirt roads, a bridge, water supply systems, and natural gas lines. By 2050, Cocodrie will be surrounded by open water as the marshlands around the village give way to rising sea levels. Another community affected by this issue is Yscloskey, LA in St. Bernard Parish. The most important part of the economy here is fishing, and highways link the parish to New Orleans fishing communities. The Yscloskey area lies outside of the protective levees and is quite vulnerable to storms. Though losses in Yscloskey are not predicted to be as great as those in Cocodrie, a 16 percent loss by 2050 leaves the infrastructure of Yscloskey even more vulnerable (Coast 2050, 1998, p. 64-66). Local residents in these areas are watching the land disappear along with the beachfronts and Cyprus swamps that were on that land (Marshall, 2014).

States of America paid fifteen million dollars to get all the land west of the Mississippi

The Mississippi River played a crucial role in agriculture and trade, which is why the Americans living west of the Appalachian Mountains heavily relied on it. In Jefferson's view, the development of land for agriculture was key in achieving prosperity. Because of this, Jefferson wanted to hinder

Mississippi Delta became very industrialized in the early 1980s. The Delta had risen from a swampy wilderness through its heyday as the New South’s Old South to its post-New Deal status as a planter’s paradise, where those who reaped the benefits of a rapidly modernizing plantation economy also managed to maintain their dominance in social and political sphere. Agriculture remains the backbone of the region 's economy, but farms that once required hundreds of people have become more technical. In the Delta, cotton was once king and many people became dependent upon the development of cotton, and now cotton no longer need someone to pick it, farmers have target the growth of livestock, soybeans, sweet potatoes to make profit. By the late 1980s to 1990s, the proportion of all jobs in natural resources and manufacturing had decline from 31 percent to 29 percent in the Delta. Recently, U.S. Department of Labor has proven that the unemployment rate in Tallahatchie County was about 10 percent, reaching a year high of about 13.5 percent by the mid of 2010.

Since the settlement of the American West, rivers have experienced changes in the natural flows and movements. Among these processes flooding has become controlled as dams have been built. Esselman et al. (2011) tracked numerous categories of anthropocentric activities through geographical informational systems. The team found that upstream fish habitats were exponentially impacted by human activities downstream. In addition to the upstream movement of impacts human impacts also travel downstream. Different human impacts on the Yellowstone River versus the Platte River have greatly affected the river ecosystems.

Every living being are directly or indirectly depend on natural environment. Sustainability helps to balance financial, social, and environmental factors to facilitate responsible business decision making over the immediate and long term. . Sustainability refers to meeting the needs of present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Oxford University press 1987, p.43). Sustainability is also being protective and aware of use of natural resources and development that meets the need of present and everything that is need for our survival and well being depends, directly or indirectly on our natural environment. According to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Sustainability is