Infrastructure wasn’t the only sector that suffered when heavy rains and massive flooding relentlessly afflicted the Pelican State. Even the coastline and wetlands weren’t spared from rapid erosion and land loss. With this in mind, most of post-Katrina efforts had to make a shift. Authorities looked beyond restoring infrastructure and urban areas to also protecting the coasts and keeping the integrity of the land.
Identifying the Problem at Hand
The Louisiana coast stretches for up to 300 kilometers, and its wetlands cover up to 130 kilometers inland, covering a total area of over 3 million acres. According to the U.S. Geological Service (USGS), about 75 square kilometers of land are washed out and lost to the sea every year. Some identified natural causes are fluctuations in the sea level, changes in water salinity, movement of currents and more. Similarly, human activities like farming, construction and drainage digging have also contributed to the area’s degradation.
Within the past decade, state officials consulted with the USGS and with firms offering structural engineering services to examine possible ways of slowing down the irreversible soil erosion. Read more from this blog: http://bit.ly/2vgBPSO
Identifying the Problem at Hand
The Louisiana coast stretches for up to 300 kilometers, and its wetlands cover up to 130 kilometers inland, covering a total area of over 3 million acres. According to the U.S. Geological Service (USGS), about 75 square kilometers of land are washed out and lost to the sea every year. Some identified natural causes are fluctuations in the sea level, changes in water salinity, movement of currents and more. Similarly, human activities like farming, construction and drainage digging have also contributed to the area’s degradation.
Within the past decade, state officials consulted with the USGS and with firms offering structural engineering services to examine possible ways of slowing down the irreversible soil erosion. Read more from this blog: http://bit.ly/2vgBPSO
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