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In a presentation that will be made April 17 at the National Hurricane Conference in New Orleans, an analysis of the impact of subsidence on coastal Louisiana and Mississippi will be made. The presentation is also available online at www.ngs.noaa.gov/News/Louisiana/LAHurricane.html. At the current rate the land is compacting, scientists at LSU and the National Geodetic Survey estimate that 15,000 square miles of land along South Louisiana will be at or below sea level within the next 70 years. "We found that subsidence, or loss of elevations, ranges from one-third of an inch to one-and-a-half inches a year across South Louisiana as well as coastal Mississippi," said Roy Dokka, professor of civil and environmental engineering and executive director of LSU's Center for Geoinformatics. "A sinking coastline puts coastal communities increasingly at risk for future storm events." The analysis of the Louisiana-Mississippi coast was made with techniques developed by LSU's Center for Geoinformatics and the NGS. Charles Challstrom, director of the NGS, said the analysis will be used in collaboration with NOAA Weather Service's storm track and storm surge predictions to clarify the growing vulnerability of coastal areas and communities to flooding and storm surge. NOAA, in cooperation with state and local agencies, is taking steps to mitigate the impact of storm surge and flood damage during future hurricanes and coastal storms by planning and implementing large- and small-scale wetland restoration projects. The projects will benefit more than 80,000 acres, with approximately $80 million in project funding, according to a NOAA media advisory. LSU's Center for Geoinformatics contributes to the NOAA effort by employing a network of geostationary satellite receiving stations to constantly monitor some 24 locations throughout the state, measuring annual movement in land surfaces as small as a few millimeters. # # # |
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