Coastal Resilience through Effective Versatile Adaptation and Sediment Strategies for Sea-Level Rise Engagement (CREVASSE)

The Mississippi River is a complex system. It is a water highway of vital deep-draft shipping lanes that drive the national economy. A source of drinking water for the cities and towns dotted along its banks. A builder of natural wetlands supporting fisheries and outdoor recreational activities. Yet, the river also poses the threat of potential flood risk that threatens local communities during times of high water.

The Challenge

Harnessing the river to create and maintain the wetlands that nourish and protect communities in the Mississippi River Delta while ensuring that the same river meets the needs of navigation, water supply, and flood protection is an exceptionally challenging task. The use of crevasses, small cuts in the channel bank through which water and sediment can flow from the river into the surrounding wetlands, have become a vital yet inexpensive restoration tool to address this challenge.

The Approach

The Coastal Resilience through Effective Versatile Adaptation and Sediment Strategies for Sea-Level Rise Engagement (CREVASSE) incubator will provide engineered and designed options for crevasse restoration projects that are ready for implementation, as well as guidance for those seeking to adaptively manage crevasse restoration projects within the Mississippi River Delta. It will also provide a lasting forum for crevasse management innovation and workforce development.

The CREVASSE incubator will provide:

  1. Shared understanding of the factors that influence crevasse success from the perspective of geomorphology, community, and management decision-making
  1. Updated science of delta geomorphology that fully incorporates flow and sediment pathways in river deltas that are intentionally influenced by human actions

Opportunities to enable innovation and workforce development to produce practitioners in the local community that can design and monitor crevasses as well as balance the environmental and economic interests surrounding this restoration tool

Partners

The Water Institute, University of New Orleans, Nunez Community College, CalTech

Related Documents

CREVASSE One Pager
Press Release

KEY TEAM MEMBERS

Christopher Esposito

Research Geoscientist

Primary Investigator VIEW TEAM MEMBER
Emily Miller

Applied Geosciences Intern

Primary Investigator VIEW TEAM MEMBER