Model The Mississippi River Summary

The Washington Times opens with a statement describing the path of Hurricane Katrina and also shares the known death toll. This article gives the audience more of a general overview of the first known effects of the hurricane, without having too many newly revealed facts. The article has quotes from the governors of Mississippi, which gives the reader a feeling that

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.

This case summarizes events preceding the Hurricane Katrina, which was one of the worst natural catastrophes in the modern history of the USA. It raises questions about the lack of reasonable prevention and preparation actions due to flimsy structure and management of the responsible organizations and persons, invalidity and inconsistence of their actions and incapability of making the decisions in a timely manner. As a result of the unstructured and incoherent activities, we could observe several ineffective and costly attempts to mitigate floods and hurricanes. In the beginning the local officials, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and “White Houses past and present always seem penny-wise and pound-foolish” because of the chain of the wrong

“There are natural hazards, but disasters are the result of human actions that put people and property in harm’s way” (Cigler 2007: 64). Throughout history New Orleans has been continuously altered by the presence of humans through the creation of levees and canals, the introduction of artificial irrigation systems, and through human induced processes that have ultimately accelerated the process of land degradation and erosion. While a natural hazard struck New Orleans in 2005, the disaster portion resulting from Hurricane Katrina was a result of human induced interactions throughout the history of New Orleans.

Along this journey created by nature, the river interacts with man’s influence to encapsulate the full geographic experience of this region. The succession of dams along the river’s path is a major contribution to how man has decided to mesh with the river. The dams have created reservoirs for water supplies, harnessed energy to provide electric power to the southwestern region, and controlled flooding. Flood control was the main concern at the time between the years 1905 and 1907 when large floods broke through the irrigation gates and destroyed crops in California. The flooding was so large it actually created a 450 square mile sea, named the Salton Sea. As a result of this major disaster, ideas were formulated to

It's not actually a silly question. The Mississippi no longer fits the definition a river as "a natural watercourse flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river." Rather, the waterway has been shaped in many ways, big and small, to suit human needs. While it maybe not be tamed, it's far from wild -- and understanding the floods that are expected to crest in Louisiana soon means understanding dams, levees, and control structures as much as rain, climate, and geography. From almost the moment in the early 18th century when the French started to build New Orleans, settlers built levees, and in so doing, entered into a complex geoclimatic relationship with about 41 percent of the United

New Orleans was originally founded on high ground overlooking the Mississippi River, above sea level. Also surrounded by Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne, New Orleans was susceptible to hurricanes that would come up the coast into the Gulf. Originally New Orleans was naturally protected by “coastal swamps that helped absorb the energy of storm surges before they reached dry land.” (Stillman 228) At this point Americans were more concerned with the floods that happened annually from the Mississippi River. In the early days, settlers built a mile long levee to block overflows from the mighty Mississippi while landowners constructed their own levees.

Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana on August 29th, 2005, but the failure of the local government started before this day “by allowing building and growing in areas in low flood lands.” The local government did not regulate these land areas that have always

The failure to adequately prepare for the storm led to increased and more widespread devastation, which in many cases harmed those living in the affected areas. An independent analysis of the reason for such massive chaos was performed and determined that “Most of the damage was due to the failure of the levee system that surrounds the city to protect it from flooding” (Ubilla). Had these levees been properly built, and had there been more of them protecting the city of New Orleans, major flooding could have potentially been lessened. A simple feature of the levee structure which engineers neglected to include is the concrete

The Atchafalaya River Basin is full of history. From the Choctaws, to the original Cajuns and even to its present day society, the Atchafalaya is not just a distributary of the Mississippi. More can be uncovered the deeper you dive into this river’s past, or in this case, its waters!

This research project is “A look into why the levees failed during Hurricane Katrina?” This report includes a brief description of the intensity, size and the destructive impact of Hurricane Katrina. It also states the observations of the levee failures at different sites and areas. There were five levees that are discussed in this report: the 17th Street Canal, London Avenue Canal – North, London Avenue Canal North - across from the breach, London Avenue Canal – South, and outside New Orleans.

Hurricane Katrina resulted in massive loss of life and billions of dollars in property damage. There are many lessons worth learning from this event. Finger pointing started before the event was over. Most of the focus on Hurricane Katrina was on its impact on New Orleans; however, the storm ravaged a much wider area than that. This paper will briefly summarize the event, the impact on the city of New Orleans and the lessons learned to ensure preparedness today.

The American River is a prime example of a multiple-use, water-resource system. It is the second biggest tributary to the Sacramento River, a basic part of the San Francisco Inlet/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta framework Its basin covers 2,163 mi2 of the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada (fig. 1) east of Sacramento, California. This complicated system consists of three major parts the North and Middle Forks, the South Fork, and the Lower American River downstream from Folsom Lake (fig. 1). These major forks and Folsom Lake represent a natural and modified system of streams and impoundments designed to meet the recreational and water-supply needs of many Californians.

The Mississippi River is the largest drainage basin in North America with an area 3,230,000 km2, an average annual discharge rate of 15,500 m3/s-1, and a unit discharge ratio of .005 m3/s1/km2. South America’s Amazon River system forms the largest drainage basin on its continent as well as the world. It covers an area of 6,915,000 km2, has a mean annual discharge of 175,000 m3/s-1, with a unit discharge ratio of .025 m3/s1/km2. [1] The Volga River runs through central Russia with an average yearly discharge rate of 8,060 m3/s-1 and has a unit discharge ratio of .006 m3/s1/km2. The Volga’s drainage basin area of 1,380,000 km2 makes it the largest in all of Europe. [2] In Asia, the most expansive river watershed in terms of area is found in

In Kelman’s and Campanella’s articles, the two authors raised the racial issue of building water management infrastructure as New Orleans’ defense from natural disasters. Voracious flood from Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain continued bothering New Orleans government during the 19th century. Thus, New Orleans government enacted “levees only” policy to control the disaster and built urban drainage system. The development of water control system in and around New Orleans increased the number and heights of levees, but also made more wetlands vanished. The segregation of landscapes also led to racial segregation and increased the risk of discriminated people suffering from flood.