Rerouting Risk: New Orleans and the Mississippi River

New Orleans has maintained a complicated relationship with the Mississippi River, which offers both a means of commerce and the threat of flooding. A massive plan to restore coastal wetlands offers some hope for the future, but it hinges on the very type of massive engineering that created the city’s perilous situation in the first place. A review of the impacts caused by flood diversions offers a perspective on the environmental consequences of the impending transformations.