Louisiana Wetlands Could be Restored by Mississippi River
Diversions In Nature Geoscience, a group of geologists from the
University of Pennsylvania used the Mississippi River flood of
2011 to observe how new diversions in the Mississippi River’s
levees could help restore the wetlands in Louisiana. The study
conducted by geologists from the University of Pennsylvania is
one of the only large-scale experiments to show how levee
modifications may help restore Louisiana’s wetlands. During the
2011 floods of the Mississippi River, the Army Corps of
Engineers opened the Morganza Spillway, a river-control
structure, to divert water off of the Mississippi into the
Atchafalaya River Basin. This action involved the deliberate
flooding of more than 12,000 square kilometers and alleviated
pressures on downstream levees and spared Baton Rouge and New
Orleans from the worst of the flood. The opening of the Morganza
Spillway allowed the Penn researchers to see how floods along
the Mississippi may have occurred before engin