App Note: ADV Sediment Flow Research by Louisiana State

Subsiding and choked off from the Mississippi River, southeastern Louisiana’s coastal marshlands have steadily sunk and become more saline. According to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data from 1990 to 2000, Louisiana is losing 24 square miles (62 square kilometers) of wetlands per year – wetlands that are nurseries of coastal fisheries and, as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita illustrated in 2004, can help absorb the brunt of storms blowing in from the Gulf of Mexico. Recognizing the danger of continued wetland degradation and loss, state and federal officials are seeking ways to rebuild Louisiana’s threatened wetlands.