Mississippi Beavers
Team information
Category:
Sherrie Teong
Bachelor
National University of Singapore
Matilde Clara Di Vita
Bachelor
Universiteit Van Amsterdam
Kinanthi Maheswari
Bachelor
Wageningen University and Research
Jule Menzel
Bachelor
Technical University Munich
Timo Fehr
Bachelor
Technical University Munich
Imroatushshoolikhah Imroatushshoolikhah
PHD
Wageningen University
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About the team
The "Mississippi Beavers" are an interdisciplinary team of six students based in the Netherlands, Germany, and Singapore. With backgrounds in landscape architecture and planning, environmental engineering, environmental science, food science, economics and buisness, and aquatic ecology and water quality management, we want to combine our disciplines to develop effective nature-based solutions for the Mississippi River Delta, drawing inspiration from the beaver as nature’s own environmental engineer.
Our vision
South Louisiana is facing extremely powerful forces that are realistically impossible to counteract completely. Trying to mitigate and adapt to the increasing trends is crucial in order to ensure the region’s future. Instead of costly big hard constructions, we want to implement multiple small nature based solutions that interact with each other and form a cohesive protective system. Composed of three defence lines using brake islands, marshes and urban centers. Land loss and sea-level rise, to some extent, is inevitable. Which is why our planning mindset includes letting go of land in a controlled manner in order to use the tremendous potential lying in the Mississippi’s sediment load. This reintroduction of the natural land building process, creates a variety of ecological, protective and economic functions, while also reducing the creation of hypoxic zones. The goal of Delta Defence is to build a resilient region that benefits from the ecosystem services of a self-generating coast. In 100 years, the coast should fully provide food, protection, buffer, and a profitable place for the fishery and ecotourism sector.
Our inventory & analysis
The Mississippi River Delta is a complex region where multiple factors come together. With its marshland and sediment bringing estuary, a special landscape was formed. The region contains geographically low-lying settlements and cities like New Orleans or Houma. A wide variety of identities come together and form a new culture. Indigenous tribes like the United Houma Nation and other marginalized groups, historically faced injustice and structural disadvantages. Today, Louisiana ranks 49th in the US-GDP ranking, and widespread poverty affects the people (IBISWorld, n.d.). Over time, humans interacted with natural resources and processes, leaving them altered. Widespread levee systems and canals keep the river in its place and prevent the natural meandering course. Natural land building processes are prevented. Deep channels cut through marshland to transport the oil from the offshore oil rigs. Economically, the oil industry, with its offshore drilling and refineries along the Mississippi, creates many jobs. The fishery sector is also a huge exporter of goods and is an essential way to make a living. The pipeline channels through the marshland led to widespread saltwater intrusion and Erosion, resulting in tremendous loss of the functioning ecosystem. The Petrochemical Industry created the “Cancer Alley” and contaminated soil and water (Human Rights Watch, 2023). In addition, natural factors like sea-level rise, subsidence, coastal erosion, and the resulting land loss and flooding take their toll on the region. Extreme weather, such as hurricanes, is a recurring threat. Louisiana’s economy and well-being depend on functioning coastal ecosystem services, which are degrading rapidly. To ensure sustainable economic stability, ecological resilience is key. Sources: IBISWorld (n.d.). Louisiana State Economic Profile. https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/economic-profiles/louisiana/ Human Rights Watch. (2023, June 29). US ends critical investigation in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley.https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/06/29/us-ends-critical-investigation-louisianas-cancer-alley