Mississippi River Delta : An overview

Over the last century, the river-dominated Mississippi delta has received increasing attention from geoscientists, biologists, engineers, and environmental planners because of the importance of the river and its deltaic environments to the economic well-being of the state of Louisiana and the nation. Population growth, subsurface resource extraction, and increased land-water use have placed demands on the delta's natural geologic, biologic, and chemical systems, therefore modifying the time and spatial scales of natural processes within the delta and its lower alluvial valley. As a result, the combined effects of natural and human-induced processes, such as subsidence, eustatic sea level rise, salt water intrusion, and wetland loss, have produced a dynamically changing landscape and socioeconomic framework for this complex delta.