560 KM2 Lost From Lousiana Coastline To Katrina & Rita Still Underwater One Year Later

[hatrack]

The Gulf Coast lost a considerable amount of land after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and little has been recovered since then. According to a new report from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), most of the lost marshland—more than 560 square kilometers (km2)—remained under water a year later.

The findings come in a report examining land changes from 1956 to 2006. Using LANDSAT satellite imagery and other data, USGS researchers estimated coastal losses and gains during those decades. Since 1956, human use and natural subsidence contributed to the losses. Subsidence in some areas could be caused by natural processes, oil removal, or lack of sediment deposition because of flood control along the Mississippi River—and the underlying reasons remain controversial. Long-considered restoration plans for marshes and wetlands in the region attempt to take this information into account.

The region’s rate of loss peaked in the late 1960s at more than 100 km2 in 1 year. But afterward, the region seemed to stabilize at lower rates—about 30 to 40 km2 annually—until 2004. The 2005 hurricanes accelerated the damages to the region’s land. The storms brought flooding, saltwater inundation that killed soil-anchoring plants, and general destruction from windblown water surges.

EDIT

http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2008/jun/science/nl_usgs.html

[BrklynLib at work]

1. The only way it would be "restored" would be if corporate profits would be a byproductt.

[XemaSab]

2. Hey, corporations could "restore" the land

Halliburton, KBR, Fleur, Bechtel, and my old company, URS... I'm sure they could come up with a restoration plan for the area. :P

[madrchsod]

3. a half a years spending on the iraq war could have rebuilt the system

one more major hurricane in this area will destroy oil and gas production in the gulf and the import/export system of the third largest watershed in the world.