California – The Flood that Could Change Everything California is spending billions to protect the millions at risk of a megaflood, but thanks to climate change, it’s too little too late. ARkStorm@SierraFront 2.0 This updates the USGS analysis below.
Category: Flooding
State and Local Government Liability for Flooding
Jon Kusler, Government Liability and Climate Change: Selected Legal Issues Related to Flood Hazards (2016). Jon Kusler, Flood Risk In The Courts: Reducing Government Liability While Encouraging Government Responsibility (2011). Jon A Kusler, A Comparative Look at Public Liability for…
Sinking Cities – Global Cities Sinking into the Ocean
Sinking cities An integrated approach towards solutions (2013). In many coastal and delta cities land subsidence exceeds absolute sea level rise up to a factor of ten. Without action, parts of Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok and numerous other…
Levees – Resources from Other Blogs
Levees and the illusion of flood control
Executive Order: Taking Action to Protect Communities and Reduce the Cost of Future Flood Disasters
Original Fact Sheet: Taking Action to Protect Communities and Reduce the Cost of Future Flood Disasters Executive Order – Establishing A Federal Flood Risk Management Standard And A Process For Further Soliciting And Considering Stakeholder Input FEMA Flood Risk Management Site…
Video – Faults and the Mississippi Delta — Rethinking Coastal Restoration
Also see: Faults Faults and the Mississippi Delta — Rethinking Coastal Restoration This is a 80 minute video of a presentation on the geology of the Mississippi Delta that was presented in a class at the LSU Law School. The speaker…
Encroaching Tides – How Sea Level Rise and Tidal Flooding Threaten U.S. East and Gulf Coast Communities
Spanger-Siegfried, E., M.F. Fitzpatrick, and K. Dahl. 2014. Encroaching tides: How sea level rise and tidal flooding threaten U.S. East and Gulf Coast communities over the next 30 years. Cambridge, MA: Union of Concerned Scientists. Today scores of coastal communities in…
Reducing Coastal Risks on the East and Gulf Coasts – NRC
National Research Council. Reducing Coastal Risks on the East and Gulf Coasts. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2014. National Vision Needed to Achieve Comprehensive Risk Reduction Along Atlantic and Gulf Coasts WASHINGTON – A national vision for coastal risk…
U.N. – Sea-Level Rise in Small Island Nations
Sea-Level Rise in Small Island Nations – Up to Four Times the Global Average – to Cost US$ Trillions in Annual Economic Loss and Impede Future Development: Shift to Green Policies and Investment Critical Bridgetown, 5 June 2014 – Climate…
The Mississippi River Delta Cycle and Coastal Restoration
Click here – Video of a presentation by Prof. Edward Richards to the LSU Mineral Law Institute on the delta cycle and the coastal erosion lawsuit. (1.3gb file – works best if you download it before playing. Otherwise it…
Gulf Coast Tsunamis – NOAA
Gulf Coast Tsunamis: What you need to know. If you thought sinking land and rising seas were the only things we had to worry about in south Louisiana, think again. Tsunamis have now joined the list. Researchers with the National…
Overwhelming Risk – Rethinking Flood Insurance in a World of Rising Seas
Union of Concerned Scientists Our coasts face growing risks from sea level rise. Today’s flood insurance system encourages development that increases these risks — and taxpayers nationwide pay the price. Sea level is rising and increasing the risk of destructive…
Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation
Field, Christopher B, Vicente Barros, Thomas F Stocker, and Qin Dahe, Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation: Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge University Press 2012).
Water Resources Development Act of 1986
Water Resources Development Act of 1986
Water Resources Development Act of 1974
Water Resources Development Act of 1974
Flood Control Act of 1965
Flood Control Act of 1965
Flood Control History
The Nation’s Responses To Flood Disasters: A Historical Account Alexander, J.S., Wilson, R.C., and Green, W.R., 2012, A brief history and summary of the effects of river engineering and dams on the Mississippi River system and delta: U.S. Geological Survey…
Protecting Wetlands and Wildlife Habitat While Reducing Flood Losses
Protecting Wetlands and Wildlife Habitat While Reducing Flood Losses: A Guidebook on Interagency Collaboration in the Mississippi River Basin In May 2011, the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and the University of North Carolina Institute for the Environment (UNC-IE), together with the Wisconsin Wetlands…
Evacuation Roulette
The Isaac track continues to veer toward the mouth of the Mississippi and through New Orleans. The US model puts it right on that track. The average of the other models pulls it east, but those are changing. The gulf…
Coastal Denial – Flood, what flood?
Bay St. Louis, Miss., officials want high-water markers placed by the state at Mississippi Highway 603 and Interstate 10 camouflaged so they no longer commemorate the tragedies of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. … Councilman Doug Seal said the markers are detrimental to attracting businesses that might want to relocate here, especially on undeveloped property around the interstate and Highway 603 juncture.
Projected Lower Mississippi Flood Crests
These estimates came out 16 May 2011, and are based on partial opening of the Morganza floodway.
https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/climate/floods/USACE_lowermiss_crest_map.pdf
Inundation Maps – Flood of 2011 on the Lower Mississippi
Lower Mississippi water flows and inundation map – May 11, 2011
Flood Risk from Opening the Morganza Floodway
Floodway into the Atchafalaya Basin saves New Orleans: Oliver Houck
“The Mississippi River is rising, the Army Corps of Engineers has just blown a controversial floodway levee north of Cairo, Ill., and the surge is coming downstream[…]
Mississippi Flood History
The Mississippi Delta has always been defined by the sediment flow of the river and level of the ocean. Of these two, sediment flow is less important than ocean level – ocean level has varied more than 200 feet over…
The Japanese Tsunami and what it means to the US
Several areas of the United States are subject to tsunamis, and the coast north of San Francisco through the Canadian border has a history of catastrophic tsunamis. This report from FEMA details the tsunami risk in the United States: https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/climate/docs/japan_eq_tsunami_and_what_they_mean_for_the_us_03-17-2011.pdf…
Small storms, big floods – Tropical Storm Allison
Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Gustav were relatively dry storms. Had they been wet storms like Allison, the damage to Louisiana would have been much greater. If New Orleans received the 39 inches of rain that Houston received during Allison, it…