Mississippi River

Question 1

Drainage Basin Size?

Answer 1

Largest drainage basin in North America, drains water from 1/3 of USA

Question 2

Source Location?

Answer 2

South-East of USA, New Orleans

Question 3

Levées?

Answer 3

HARD ENGINEERING - 15m high raised embankments, stretching out for 3000km

Question 4

Afforestation?

Answer 4

SOFT ENGINEERING - Trees being planted in areas of the rivers upper course, to increase interception levels

Question 5

Straightening?

Answer 5

HARD ENGINEERING - Cutting through meanders for 1750km, to increase river flow

Question 6

Safe Flood Zones?

Answer 6

SOFT ENGINEERING - Areas near the river that are restricted from being built on, to act as safe zones

Question 7

Sustainability - HARD

Answer 7

Current hard-engineering methods are proven to be neither totally effective or sustainable. Many flash floods are blamed on failure of levées, and in 2011, a section of a levée was exploded to create a makeshift washland

Question 8

Sustainability - SOFT

Answer 8

Soft engineering methods are proven to be more sustainable than hard methods. However, afforestation has not been applied over a large enough area on the floodplain, and the trees take too long to grow fully, for it to make a noticeable difference during floods

Question 9

Sustainability - CONCLUSION

Answer 9

The Mississippi River is NOT being managed sustainably. The best way to prevent flooding in the future would be to recreate wetlands and reactivate floodplains in strategic locations