BlueTerra

About the team

We are a team with a strong background in developing agricultural technologies, we combine natural restoration methods with best monitoring to ensure adaptability in the face of climate change. Our integrated approach connects all parts of the delta system, creating sustainable, scalable solutions for long-term environmental impact. We are committed for contribution to the SDGs, focused on restoring degraded delta ecosystems using nature-based engineering solutions. We are motivated by global climate risks facing vulnerable communities and ecosystems, and we are focusing on integrating natural processes; such as sediment dynamics, flooding, and wetland restoration; into resilient engineering strategies. As a BlueTerra, we aim to bridge engineering and ecology to create scalable, nature-based solution.

Our vision

By 2120, the Mississippi River Delta has transformed into a living, self-renewing landscape where nature leads and human systems adapt. Instead of rigidly controlling water and sediment, the delta works with natural processes such as sediment transport, seasonal flooding, wetland growth, and barrier-island dynamics to build land, reduce flood risk, and sustain ecosystems and communities. Our vision is to construct an adaptive, nature-based inverted siphon sediment diversions that reconnect river sediment and freshwater to wetlands without breaching levees or causing abrupt ecological disruption. These systems operate seasonally and adaptively, enabling continuous land-building, controlled flooding, and salinity management while protecting fisheries and marsh ecosystems. Wetlands are recognized as primary infrastructure, absorbing storm surge, reducing wave energy, trapping sediment, and providing ecological and economic benefits. Barrier islands are nourished with sediment to maintain their protective role, while floodplains are reactivated to store water and enhance biodiversity. Human settlements and infrastructure evolve to coexist with water through elevated, amphibious, and floating designs, integrating renewable energy and nature-based livelihoods. Communities live safely with water, infrastructure supports natural processes rather than suppressing them, and local economies are rooted in regeneration rather than extraction. By working with natural dynamics instead of resisting change, the delta thrives as a productive, resilient, and climate-positive landscape. We will prioritise vulnerable coastal communities in adaptation strategies, and restoration; which creates new economic opportunities in fisheries, ecological management, carbon storage, and renewable energy. By shifting from engineering control to ecological performance, the delta becomes a regenerative system where sediment, water, ecosystems, and human activities form a resilient feedback loop; ensuring long-term climate adaptation, biodiversity recovery, and sustainable livelihoods.

Our inventory & analysis

The Mississippi River Delta is a highly dynamic but critically degraded landscape shaped by sediment delivery, hydrology, subsidence, and salinity. Historically, the river supplied approximately 400 million tons of sediment annually, sustaining wetlands and barrier islands. Today, more than half of this sediment bypasses the delta due to continuous levee confinement and upstream controls, accelerating land loss. Subsidence rates of up to 10 mm per year, combined with relative sea-level rise, exceed natural land-building processes. Salinity intrusion increasingly stresses freshwater marshes, threatening fisheries, biodiversity, and coastal livelihoods. Human interventions have intensified these vulnerabilities. Rigid flood-control levees protect urban areas but disconnect floodplains from sediment and freshwater. Navigation canals and energy infrastructure fragment wetlands and act as pathways for saltwater intrusion. Vulnerable communities, particularly in Plaquemines Parish, are concentrated in high-risk zones exposed to storm surge, flooding, and land loss. Climate change compounds these pressures through stronger hurricanes, rising temperatures, altered precipitation, and accelerating sea-level rise. The analysis reveals that land loss is not a natural failure but a systemic outcome of engineered river confinement. Reconnecting sediment and freshwater through adaptive, nature-based strategies is essential to restore delta resilience, ecological function, and long-term human safety.