Managing Rivers for Multiple Uses Panel, Session #1
Introducing the Mississippi River Delta Transition Initiative The National Academies Gulf Research Program has asked LSU and Tulane to form an integrated research consortium to carry out the Mississippi River Delta Transition Initiative (MissDelta). This five year program, anticipated to begin in late 2023, will be focused on the future of the lowermost delta plain area adjacent to the Mississippi River: this encompasses the river corridor below the end of east bank MR&T levee, the birdsfoot subaerial delta, and the subaqueous delta front. The consortium will address four objectives: future projection of the evolution and stability of the system between now and 2100, a management evaluation that includes strategizing about how negative impacts of the degradation of the lower river promontory can be forestalled or minimized, workforce diversity, and socioeconomic resilience. To date, while there has been significant investment and extensive research conducted on the Mississippi River Delta, led by the Louisiana CPRA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, there are limited studies focused on projections for the terminus of the Mississippi River Delta, including the subaqueous platform. As this region experiences rapid physical changes, understanding the rates, intensity, and consequences of impacts like sea level rise, subsidence, land loss, ecological health, channel shoaling, and other processes is pivotal in building a resilient coastline and protecting Gulf ecosystems. MissDelta will also dovetail with existing and planned technical and resilience efforts being carried out on the region by government agencies, NGO’s and the academic community. The goal of this session will be to (1) report on troubling trends on the stability of this region that suggest its future is problematic and the need for MissDelta, (2) report on the significance of this region to the health of the delta and wider surrounding areas of the northern Gulf, and (3) outline a proposed consortium workplan to address the objectives. Session Organizer: Mead Allison | Department of River-Coastal Science and Engineering, Email: meadallison@tulane.edu Moderator: Samuel Bentley | Department of Geology & Geophysics, sjb@lsu.edu Presenter or Panelist 1: Mead Allison | Department of River-Coastal Science & Engineering, meadallison@tulane.edu Presenter or Panelist 2: Ehab Meselhe | Department of River-Coastal Science and Engineering, emeselhe@tulane.edu Presenter or Panelist 3: George Xue | Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, zxue@lsu.edu Presenter or Panelist 4: Carol Wilson | Louisiana State University, carolw@lsu.edu Presenter or Panelist 5: Barbara A. Kleiss | Tulane University, bkleiss@tulane.edu