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MINI MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI
Based on a horizontal scale of one foot per 12,000 feet and a vertical scale of one foot per 500 feet, the model covers the lower 76 miles of the Mississippi River and has a surface area of 3,526 square miles. Partially funded by the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, the model was designed and built to aid in the study of large-scale river and sediment diversions in the hopes of restoring and maintaining Louisiana's coastline, including the barrier islands that are a significant protector of the mainland against hurricanes. "This project is important because millions of dollars of infrastructure lie in the area the model covers," says Clint Willson, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and principal investigator on the river model project. "Everything from petroleum facilities to homes and fishing waters could be impacted by our studies on the potential impacts of one or more river and sediment diversions." Because of the physical and dynamic scaling, the model is able to simulate two years of river time in just one hour; thus a hundred year study of a diversion scenario could be conducted in 50 hours. By choosing various combinations of large and small diversions at different points along the river, researchers can anticipate sediment transport patterns and gain some insight into the potential to build or maintain land.
Currently, the model is being used by researchers from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Projects and proposals have been initiated with other departments, such as Oceanography & Coastal Sciences and Geology & Geophysics, to use this model to complement ongoing and future research projects. Responding to a need in Louisiana for such a program, work is also underway to develop a master's degree program, focused on the area of coastal engineering and science, and to develop a coastal and river hydraulics laboratory. All of this work could lead to protection of an important industrial area and aid Louisiana’s fisheries sector. ON
THE WEB: from Spring 2004 Issue
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Pointe
La Hache. Port Sulphur. Fort Jackson. Venice. Head of Passes.
These places have two things in common. Each lies in the Mississippi
River delta and each suffer from erosion problems. So,
LSU researchers built a small-scale model of the delta and housed
it in the new Vincent A. Forte River & Coastal Engineering
Research Laboratory located on River Road.