ANALYZING SEDIMENT ACCUMULATION FROM FLOODWATER DIVERSION, BONNET CARRE SPILLWAY, LA

Over the course of the last century, the Mississippi Delta has lost nearly 20% of its coastal wetland area as a result of several different factors, e.g. delta subsidence, relative sea-level rise, and coastal erosion, some of which have been exacerbated by human activity. In order to combat this deterioration and restore the delta, it is necessary to develop a plan to divert sediment-laden flood waters towards sediment starved regions. It is essential to map, quantify, and understand the nature of the deposits created from flood water diversions. We will present the measured area covered by sediment deposited during flooding events, using a Geographic Information Systems software, QGIS. We will relate these estimates to hydrological data for each flood period. Our goal is to understand the scale of deposits related to the hydrological conditions and to create a publicly available dataset for other researchers to us