Changing Course teams present final 100-year plans to restore Lower Mississippi River Delta

The Changing Course Leadership team announced the final long-term strategies of the three selected teams in the Changing Course competition. Each multidisciplinary team was challenged to devise 100-year plans for a self-sustaining delta ecosystem for the Lower Mississippi River Delta, one of America's most significant natural resources.

The three teams also had to consider innovative ways to reduce land loss in the area while improving navigation conditions and resilience suitable to the needs of local residents and industries. The final designs will then be used to assist Louisiana coastal planners and engineers iin developing the state’s 2017 Coastal Master Plan.

Read on for more.

"Over the last century, nearly 1,900 square miles of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands have vanished. Every hour, a football field-sized swath of land drowns in the Gulf’s advancing tides. At this rate, by 2100, Louisiana’s protective coast will be gone. The solutions proposed by the winning teams focus primarily on the Mississippi River south of New Orleans.

While each of the winning teams offered a different vision, all three identified three major themes as critical to sustaining the Mississippi River Delta today and into the future:

• A clear focus on a sustainable delta through using the natural forces of the Mississippi River
• Maximum integration of navigation, flood control and restoration, including consideration of ideas for a better and more sustainable navigation channel   
• Consideration of a gradual transition of industry and communities into more protected and resilient communities, over time."

Check out each team's final designs below.

Baird & Associates Team

Team members.

Project details.

Moffatt & Nichol + West 8 + LSU-CSS

Team members

Project details.

STUDIO MISI-ZIIBI Team

Team members.

Project details.

More images in the thumbnail gallery below.