UNDERSTANDING THE GEOLOGIC PROCESSES OF COASTAL LAND LOSS FOR THE RESTORATION OF NORTH AMERICA'S LARGEST RIVER DELTA-THE MISSISSIPPI

The Mississippi River delta is a vital natural resource to the United States. This resource is at risk of vanishing, between 1932 and 1990 this delta lost over 680,000 acres of critical habitat-swamps, marshes, and barrier islands. Understanding the critical processes of land loss is essential to the rescue of this national treasure. Over the last 20 years the USGS in cooperation with the USACE and Louisiana universities have investigated processes of erosion, submergence, and man's impacts in addition to geologic framework studies of Holocene coastal evolution and sediment resources. This information is key to developing successful restoration strategies and projects. Without the implementation of significant restoration programs the federal and state natural resource trustees predict the economic impact of the coatal land loss crisis will exceed $ 100 billion by the year 2050. The Coastal Wetland Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act(CWPPRA) of 1990 was a start with $ 40 million per year dedicated to restoration activities. From CWPPRA successful freshwater diversions, marsh creation, and barrier island restoration projects were implemented. In 1998 the federal and state natural resource trustees realized a larger restoration program was needed to reverse the magnitude of Louisiana's land loss problem. As a result, the Coast 2050 initiative was started to implement the largest coastal restoration program in the U.S., $ 14 billion through the Water Resources Development Act.