The Giving Delta
The Giving Delta
Lower Mississippi River Delta
Most coastal settlements occupy a tenuous line at the edge of water and land. They are strategically positioned on the ocean’s edge but must balance the consequences of coastal storms and effects of climate change. However, the Deltaic Louisiana Coast has an opportunity that most other coastal regions do not: a dynamic, sediment-rich river that drains 40% of the contiguous US, which can continuously replenish this edge into a rich, productive wetland zone; a zone which has supported local commerce and culture for centuries.
Louisiana can free itself from a century-long approach of single-minded flood control into one of controlled flooding, allowing the annual pulses of the Mississippi to sustain a thriving wetland and allow for active land-building, protecting one of the Nation’s most crucial economic zones, enhancing ecosystem productivity, and nourishing human occupation for centuries to come.
The team integrated a host of economic, engineering and design ideas, bringing these strategies to a level of realism that demonstrates feasibility. First and foremost, The Giving Delta is a strategic plan that shows a positive cost benefit for solving wicked problems is possible with a committed, multidisciplinary team.
A suite of solutions included: sand Motors and barrier islands utilizing longshore processes to keep sediment and sand in the littoral zone; sediment traps and dedicated dredging; economic investment corridors bundled with infrastructural spines; active control and placement of sediment to the areas within the Coastal Zone where it is needed most urgently for economic and residential protection; active and passive spillways and controlled floodways sized for projected flood levels that maximize sediment deposition while keeping salinity levels within the tolerance of fisheries and ecosystems.
As Senior Landscape Architects at West 8, Unknown Studio’s Claire Agre and Dave Zielnicki led the West 8 team to a winning entry over the two-year competition period (2013-2015).
Project timeline: 2013-2015
Client: The Environmental Defense Fund
Scope: Design Competition (Winner)
Project Type: Watershed | Waterfront
Size: 3 Million Acres
Team: West 8 urban design & landscape architecture, p.c.
Claire Agre, Senior Landscape Architect and Lead Designer
Dave Zielnicki, Landscape Architect
Consultants: Moffatt & Nichol, Louisiana State University Coastal Sustainability Studio, University of New Orleans, RAND Corporation, Deltares
Awards & Recognition:
First Prize, Changing Course International Design Competition
ASLA-NY Merit Award, 2016.
