Levee System: Past and Prestent

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)

flooding. The dyke was one of the biggest in America at a mile and three quarters long. Colt’s

The Sumerians were the first river valley civilization to create never-before-seen innovations. They made gigantic leaps forward with the invention of the wheel, bronze, a math system based on the number 60, and innovative building design. Interestingly, the wheel was first invented and used to make pottery. Hundreds of years later, Sumerians finally attached a wheel to a cart. The innovation of taking the wheel from its pottery use to that of transportation occurred when someone noticed that carts got easier to drag across logs as wedges were ground into the logs. So, some brilliant Sumerian ground down a log to create an axel with wheels at the end which was attached directly to the cart. This was eventually refined when the axel/wheel combination was attached to the cart with stabilizing pins, allowing the axel and

Technology has advanced immensely over 10 million years and very much shapes our society today. When a natural disaster occurs, even though our technology allows us to minimize loss and damages, they are still terrifying and catastrophic. One can only imagine the fear and devastation a culture like Mesopotamia would suffer after a flood. Being close to rivers helped the Mesopotamians thrive technologically and economically. The rivers also however provided great distraught and devastation when they would flood.

Jamestown was made near a river so they could get water from it. But eventually the people of Jamestown began dumping their human waste into the river hoping it would wash out into the ocean (Background Essay Document B). However, the ocean’s tides rose and washed the waste back into the river causing the water to get even more dirty. They built wells in order to get fresh water from the ground but it was helpless to droughts and salt water intruding the wells. Because the water was so dirty they got sick from the water and eventually died.

They had thought about it but there was certain effects they just couldn’t over look. The Atchafalaya was used as a safety valve, to relieve a good deal of pressure and help keep New Orleans from ending up in Yucatan. The Atchafalaya was the source of water in the swamps and bayous of the Cajun world. The Atchafalaya was the water supply of countless towns and small cities. The Corps was not in a political or moral position to kill the Atchafalaya. The principles of nature said the more the Atchafalaya was given, the more it would want to take, because it was the deeper stream. The more it was given, the deeper it would make its bed. The Corps would have to build some kind of contraption that could give the Atchafalaya a portion of the Mississippi and at the same time prevent it from taking it all.

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

Many actions include building structures to control the river like dams and levees, the dredging of canals, and draining and filling. Naturally, spring floods caused the river to overflow their banks. As a result, the water allowed the spreading of sediment all throughout the delta. However, when Europeans arrived in New Orleans, the river was still flooding therefore creating land out in the Gulf of Mexico.

The main forms of human disturbance are the river-control structures such as dams and levees, the dredging of canals, and draining and filling. (Davis-Wheeler,

Levees were implemented as the primary form of protection from the bodies of water surrounding the city. Moreover, officials recognized these structures were critical to protecting the city’s inhabitants given the city’s topography. However, a confluence of factors led to projects that were more immediately profitable being a top priority while simultaneously allowing the infrastructure critical to protecting the city deteriorate. Because of decisions to postpone upgrades and maintenance, the city’s chances of withstanding a hurricane of Katrina’s magnitude were decreased. Ultimately, the levee breaches caused the city’s destruction.

First discussion is on drain tile. Farmers in the red river valley are in controversy over if it is or isn’t but according to facts it is actually better for the soil and for farmers due to they can get in the fields faster,get crops and at the same time control the water table. With the ability to control the water table the farmers can ensure that they wouldn’t lose as many crops to water damage.

The River Valley in Southwest Asia became the home of some great early civilizations. Some of these civilizations include Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. Many great contributions in architecture, government, writing, and many other subjects came from each of the previous civilizations listed. Without the civilizations, many agricultural advances that occurred over the years may have taken much longer, and possibly never happened. All of the contributions took a lot of effort mentally to create such as new writing systems or designing the pyramids. The many contributions from each civilization certainly helped the whole world in many ways.

The 70-30 split, as it came to be known, was approximately the breakdown of the flow in the Nineteen Fifties and was thought to be an affordable selection that may permit the Mississippi to keep up its current route. The Corps completed the first components of the management equipment within the 1960’s. In 1973, a large flood vulnerable to destroy the most management structure and therefore the Corps began a design of the system to incorporate extra structure components. The resulting “Old watercourse management Structure” that exists nowadays was designed and engineered {to permit|to permit} the maximum amount as half the combined flow of the Rivers to be entertained down the Atchafalaya throughout a serious flood and to allow configuration of the flow to attenuate stress to the structures. the aftermath of the huge floods that may cause the most flow of the watercourse to leap to the Atchafalaya watercourse, aside from the price, anxiety, tragedy, and aggravation of dealing with massive amounts of water being within the wrong place, there would be lingering issues that would amendment the approach of life on the lower Mississippi. Instead of 70% flow down the lower Mississippi and half-hour

The Aztec civilization was the most interesting thing that I learned about in this class. The Aztecs “evolved from a poor semi nomadic group to the rulers of the most powerful empire ever developed in ancient Mesoamerica” (pg 322). I have always thought how advanced and functional their society was is incredible. Societies today can learn from their civilizations structure.

This slideshow will demonstrate some of Mesopotamia's most important inventions and achievements. Some of them may surprise you! You've used at least one of them already today. You can click the play button to watch the slideshow, or you can use the thumbnails at the bottom to change the picture