Updated May 18, 2008.

Mississippi River Delta land is disappearing. Its sediment—the sediment that would replenish the subsiding delta—is instead channeled by dikes straight out to the Gulf of Mexico. By studying the sedimentary deposits beneath the present delta surface, which serve as a record of how deltas maintain themselves under natural conditions, researchers can learn more about the natural delta land-building process: This process occurs over a range of space and time scales.

The goal of the Subsurface Architecture (SA) Integrated Project (IP) is to learn how natural, self-maintaining deltas worked in the past and then to harness those processes to help restore the Mississippi River Delta today. NCED's delta land-building field site, the Wax Lake Delta (WLD), will significantly contribute to our understanding of natural delta systems.

WLD Overview  | WLD Research  |  '07 Field Campaign Results 

The SA IP, over the next four years, is working towards the following goals: (1) a successfully predicted evolution of a major subdelta, including delta land-building (sedimentation + subsidence) and ecosystem, and (2) costs and benefits analysis of delta land-building scenarios.