LONG TERM MORPHOLOGIC MODELLING OF DELTA DEVELOPMENT IN BRETON SOUND RESULTING FROM A PROPOSED DIVERSION STRUCTURE

Abstract

Sediment deprivation, hydrologic alteration, subsidence, sea level rise, and saltwater intrusion have been causing significant land loss in coastal Louisiana. Breton Sound combined with the nearby Barataria Bay, and Mississippi River Delta have lost approximately 1800 square kilometers (or 447,000 acres) of land, representing one of the highest land loss rates in the world since the 1930s when the Mississippi River was leveed. To address this problem, the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) initiated several sediment diversion projects in the Lower Mississippi River (LMR). The Mid- Breton Sediment Diversion (MBrSD) project is one of the costal restoration projects proposed to restore natural processes in Breton Sound, which can strategically reestablish hydrologic flows, carry land-building sediments, nourish marshes and sustain land.