IF WE ARE GOING TO BE FRANK with each other, today was one of the more boring days of our trip. Our Class took a trip up to Baton Rouge to meet with a professor, Craig Colten. He was a very interesting man with a lot of knowledge about not only Baton Rouge but New Orleans as well. The problem for me was that we weren't listening to him lecture about any of the numerous topics I would have been inclined to listen to. No, no, today we got to hear all about levees.
For the folks at home who don't know what a levee is let me lay it down for you. It's a small wall that borders the side of a river that is meant to help control flooding. I am sure there is much more to it than that but that is the gist of it. These types of formations can be naturally occurring, just piles of sand and dirt that pile up and stick over time. To be clean, when there is a naturally occurring levee it does not eradicate flooding from the area but instead ends up limiting the flooding to specific flooding seasons. As time has gone on people have begun to manipulate this concept and began making levees of our own.
Now, I like to believe that I am at least a somewhat educated woman. However, I do not for the life of me understand why we use levees the way we do! I am sure there is some level of brilliance my mind has missed because from my perspective they just don't make sense. Naturally occurring levees I am totally fine with. They allow for seasons to form and cycles to develop. When we do it, we try to put an absolute stop to said cycle, preventing all flooding from occurring and allowing settlements to.. well, settle. In theory this sounds great, we are are able to manipulate nature into what best suits our needs. In real life though, many times these types of things don't work or have other unexpected negative events. New Orleans is a prime example of these other effects.
The city of New Orleans sits at the base of the Mississippi River in a flood area or water shed zone. This means that the whole area was meant to flood. However, as colonies began to settle levees and other devices were put into place to prevent flooding and help make room for population growth. New Orleans now rests well outside its original borders. Most of this area is not only meant to be flooded but is also below sea level. BELOW sea level.
I personally don't see the use in levees because all they do is temporarily cover up a problem, they can't prevent all flooding events. And, once the levees fail, the repercussions are worse then ever. I might be missing something important. After looking at the results of our use of levees, especially what happened to New Orleans in 2005, is it really worth the temporary success?
For the folks at home who don't know what a levee is let me lay it down for you. It's a small wall that borders the side of a river that is meant to help control flooding. I am sure there is much more to it than that but that is the gist of it. These types of formations can be naturally occurring, just piles of sand and dirt that pile up and stick over time. To be clean, when there is a naturally occurring levee it does not eradicate flooding from the area but instead ends up limiting the flooding to specific flooding seasons. As time has gone on people have begun to manipulate this concept and began making levees of our own.
Now, I like to believe that I am at least a somewhat educated woman. However, I do not for the life of me understand why we use levees the way we do! I am sure there is some level of brilliance my mind has missed because from my perspective they just don't make sense. Naturally occurring levees I am totally fine with. They allow for seasons to form and cycles to develop. When we do it, we try to put an absolute stop to said cycle, preventing all flooding from occurring and allowing settlements to.. well, settle. In theory this sounds great, we are are able to manipulate nature into what best suits our needs. In real life though, many times these types of things don't work or have other unexpected negative events. New Orleans is a prime example of these other effects.
The city of New Orleans sits at the base of the Mississippi River in a flood area or water shed zone. This means that the whole area was meant to flood. However, as colonies began to settle levees and other devices were put into place to prevent flooding and help make room for population growth. New Orleans now rests well outside its original borders. Most of this area is not only meant to be flooded but is also below sea level. BELOW sea level.
I personally don't see the use in levees because all they do is temporarily cover up a problem, they can't prevent all flooding events. And, once the levees fail, the repercussions are worse then ever. I might be missing something important. After looking at the results of our use of levees, especially what happened to New Orleans in 2005, is it really worth the temporary success?