Working with the Mississippi River for Sustainable Storm Protection

The Louisiana coast is losing land at an alarming rate. This land loss has resulted in greater damage to infrastructure near the coast, as land and marsh that historically buffered this infrastructure disappears. Infrastructure in Louisiana is critical to the United States for shipping along the Mississippi River and for oil and gas production and import/export. Land loss in Louisiana is the result of years of well-intentioned, but unsustainable, practices. Louisiana is in the initial stages of a 50-year plan (Louisiana's Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast, 2012) to build resilient infrastructure that will work with the natural delta and coastal processes to provide long-term, sustainable coastal protection for the state. Given the projected annualized cost of doing nothing, Louisiana cannot afford not to implement the plan.