In this Book
- Designing the Bayous: The Control of Water in the Atchafalaya Basin, 1800-1995
- Book
- 2004
- Published by: Texas A&M University Press
- Series: Gulf Coast Books Series
summary
Louisiana’s Atchafalaya River Basin is one of the most dynamic and critical environments in the country. It sustains the nation’s last cypress-tupelo wetland and provides a habitat for many species of animals. Endowed with natural gas and oil fields, the basin also supports a large commercial fisheries industry. Perhaps most crucial, it remains a primary component of the plan to control the Mississippi River and relieve flooding in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and other communities in the lower river valley.
The continuing health of the basin is a reflection not of nature, but of the work of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. With levee building and clearing in the nineteenth century and damming, dredging, and floodway construction in the twentieth, the basin was converted from a vast forested swamp into a designer wetland, where human aspirations and nature maintained a precarious equilibrium.
Originally published by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers primarily for internal distribution, this environmental and political history of the Atchafalaya Basin is an unflinching account of the transformation of an area that has endured perhaps more human manipulation than any other natural environment in the nation. Martin Reuss provides a new preface to bring us up-to-date on the state of the basin, which remains both an engineering contrivance and natural wonder.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Preface to Texas A&M Edition
- pp. vii-x
- Abbreviations
- pp. xv-xviii
- Chapter 3. The Outlet Question
- pp. 71-102
- Chapter 4. Apres Le Deluge: The Jadwin Plan
- pp. 103-136
- Chapter 5 .The Politics of Engineering
- pp. 137-172
- Chapter 7. The Old River Problem
- pp. 207-248
- Chapter 10. Defending the Turf
- pp. 291-322
- Chapter 11. Denouement
- pp. 323-354
- Bibliography
- pp. 425-452
- Illustration Credits
- pp. 453-456
Additional Information
ISBN
9781603446327
Related ISBN(s)
9781585443758
MARC Record
OCLC
777549440
Pages
496
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No