The LSU center studying our coast and river that made us

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, scientist from around the world conducted research on the storms impact.

Closer to home, that research has been done at the LSU Center for River Studies, Louisiana’s experts on our coast. WGNO visited the center to examine their work.

“Katrina did two things. One, it was all about people and natural resources. We had to put them together because they’ve lived together, the people and the natural resources were disappearing. Second, we had to think big. For Katrina, we realized this is a big problem,” said VP of Research/LSU Department of Oceanography and Coastal Science, Robert Twilley.

Twilley addressed how those departments began to look at our states disappearing coast and coastal communities. The end result working with the state’s coastal communities.

The end result, working with the state’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, was to execute the best proposal to protect the state and it’s people from future storms.

“Master plan, Coastal Master Plan 2007 and then the Coastal Master Plan in 2012 really set the pace for where our direction was going with our program,” said Twilley.

To be clear, the state hasn’t completely followed the plan as laid out. More recently by Gov. Landry canceling the Mid Barataria Diversion project.

The work continues and the one result is the LSU Center for River Studies, a place used to educate residents but also to study the delta.

“We perform research. We use the lower Mississippi River physical model to study the hydraulics, the way the water flows in the lower most Mississippi River and how bedload or sand moves down the Mississippi River. We are doing that so we can understand how future conditions, whether that’s different flow rates or how relative sea level rise or different projects on the river may impact the way that sand moves and or the availability of that sand for the state to use it for different restoration projects,” said Dean/ Director of LSU Center for River Studies Clint Wilson.

While Katrina prompted a mistrust of many public institutions by residents who lost everything to the storm and the subsequent finger pointing for fault.

The center works to maintain a public confidence free of outside influence.

“With the trust in an institution like LSU. Decades and decades of research that helps us understand how the river formed our coast. I think then the responsibility is to say ok we need to continue doing that. We can’t get into making policy, our job is to inform, provide the data and to provide the analysis. But it’s really about doing that research,” said Wilson.

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