Comments and questions to Adam Talsma
On the Topic of Levees in New Orleans
1. American Society Of Civil Engineers. Instrumentation of Embankment Dams and Levees. Reston: American Society of Civil Engineers, 1999.
This book is a manual that is issued to Army Corps Officers in charge of the Army's Civil Engineering department. Basically, it is a practical guide to understanding not only the construction processes behind levees and dams but also the essential maintainence tasks. Each chapter is well organized and therefore suited for selective reading. Yet, by being very specific, it immerses the reader in details that they must keep in mind.
2. Brinkley, Douglas. The Great Deluge. New York: Harper Collins Publisher, 2006.
Fresh off the press, the author of "The Great Deluge" writes about Hurricane Katrina with opinionated claims against the Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA, the US Government, and other political figures involved. Douglas repeatedly blames them for their careless disregard of danger signs beforehand, poorly constructed levees and canals, and also for not being willing to set aside sufficient funding for repairs and refugee necessities. Douglas tends to turn to emotional stories rather than simply stating the facts.
3. Elsner, James B., and A B. Kara. Hurricanes of the North Atlantic. New York: Oxford UP, Inc, 1999.
This book adds to both the history component of my research and also to my grasp of hurricanes in general. The authors cover quite a few of the hurricanes that have passed through the carribean and gulf of mexico, following paths similar to that of Katrina. In addition, the effects that these storms had on the lives of the people and the infrastructure that got in its way.
4. Escarameia, Manuela. River and Channel Revetments. Reston: ASCE P, 1998.
This source is meant to be my authority on designs for water channeling. New Orleans is one giant maze of canals, and therefore I thought this book would be useful in educating me on their possible construction and how one could possibly improve on any design faults. This book also discusses the best materials to use so as to avoid erosion and add structural support.
5. Fletcher, Caroline, and Tom Spencer, eds. Flooding and Environmental Challenges for Venice and Its Lagoon. New York: Cambridge UP, 2005.
It is important to also understand other areas where flooding is a part of daily life, and what strategies the world's most qualified civil engineers are employing. Venice is an obvious target. This book talks in depth about the values of building artificial wavebreakers off-shore and the most suitable sediments to use in order to accomplish your task. In addition, Venice has had to deal with flood warnings for much longer than New Orleans.
6. Herbich, John B., ed. Handbook of Coastal Engineering. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc, 2000.
I call this my levee encyclopedia! This book is a comprehensive handbook that is easier to read than most other technical books on this topic and as such provides my research with a practical reference that will help when the math in the other books goes past simple differential equations. Anything I need to know about protecting coastlands can be found in some shape or form in this guidebook.
7. Hoeksema, Robert J. Designed for Dry Feet. Reston: ASCE P, 2006.
Of course, the other place famous for their dikes is Holland. This book recounts the Netherlands history with dikes and includes their most successful practices as well as some that failed. By studying their actions, one can learn from their experience and try and incorporate that knowledge into the rebuilding of New Orleans.
8. Proverbs, David G., and Robby Soetanto. Flood Damaged Property. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004.
After a brief introduction into floods, this book, (which is really somewhat of a textbook), goes in depth about how to best build structures that will resist floodwaters. After that, the book goes on to provide readers with some practical ways of repairing damaged buildings. Problems discussed in this book appear very analagous to those often viewed on TV about the areas that received minor to moderate damage as a result of Katrina.
9. Roberts, Jr., Nash C. The Story of Extreme Hurricane Camille. New Orleans: 1969.
This account after the famous Hurricane Camille provides insight into a situation very similar to the one that New Orleans is in right now. Unsuspected, a huge storm comes in and tears apart some of the very same areas that were destroyed by Katrina. This book mentions what kinds of improvements must be made in order to protect against a future hurricane, the very topic of our research project.
10. Wallendorf, Louise, Lesley Ewing, Spencer Rogers, and Chris Jones, eds. Solutions to Coastal Disasters. Reston: ASCE, 2005.
This book was written after an ASCE conference held in order to focus on analyzing the most proven methods of preserving coastlines. Additionally, the book draws from other areas of the world including coasts in Asia that are constantly under attack by horrible hurricanes. What has worked their can be employed in New Orleans.
11. Whittle, Andrew J. "Failure of Levees Due to Hurricane Katrina and Future of Hurricane Protection in New Orleans." Terrascope. Terrascope Guest Speaker. 16-168, Cambridge. 20 Sept. 2006.
This talk stressed the fact that much of the flooding and resulting damage in New Orleans could have been avoided if only the levees had been built properly and according to the original plans. For unknown reasons, the Army Corps of Engineers were not only way behind schedule on the construction of the levees, but they also failed to plant them firmly enough into the soft soil deposits from the Mississippi River. Whittle also addressed some concerns for the rebuilding processes that are currently underway.
12. Harrison, Robert W. Levee Districts and Levee Building in Mississippi. Stoneville: Stoneville Miss. Delta Council, 1951.
This book is a thorough study of the mississippi river's levee history. It records the many different people who took part in the construction of the levees. According to this book some people built certain parts of the dikes on their own and with little knowledge of the science behind it. The value of this book is in its careful documentation of the history specifics relating to the Mississippi River.
13. Chambers, Julius. The Mississippi River and Its Wonderful Valley. New York, London: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1910.
This book will likely be the earliest book from which I will draw information from. As such, it provides me with an idea of how people in the late 1800's and early 1900's viewed the Mississippi River. The author focuses a lot on the river's surrounding environment including varieties of trees, lakes, etc. In addition, this book provides me with an appreciation for those areas and reminds me that generations have been enjoying the benefits of New Orlean's unique location. For example, the author of this book openly describes his love for the Mississippi River.
14. Butler, Rhett A. "Environmental Problems Worsened Hurricane Katrina's Impact." Mongabay.Com. 31 Aug. 2005. 22 Sept. 2006 <http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0831-new_orleans_wetlands.html>.
This is an updated website that was started right after Hurricane Katrina. Although this particular article itself was short, it included links to other very helpfull websites. The author writes about the impact that the loss of the delta had on the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. Data is included about how much land has been lost. In addition, the author brings up the effect that global warming must have had during this same time.
15. Bourne, Jr., Joel K. "Gone with the Water." National Geographic (2004). 22 Sept. 2006 <http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/>.
Why is Louisiana all of the sudden getting hit by bigger and bigger storms? This article blames it on loss of land in the Delta region. This article is interesting in the solutions it proposes to the flood issues in New Orleans. For example, it brings up the idea of installing a system of gated portions on the levees in certain areas that will then allow the water and sediments of the Mississippi to pour out onto the land and reform the quickly receding coasts of Louisiana. '
16. Usgs. United States. National Wetlands Research Center. USGS. Without Restoration, Coastal Land Loss to Continue. 21 May 2003. 22 Sept. 2006 <http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/releases/pr03_004.htm>.
This is a news realease by the United States Government branch dealing with research in wetlands areas. This is a compilation of data and numbers dealing with the loss of land around Louisiana. Since this article was published two years before Hurricane Katrina hit, it shows that the Government had data sitting in their own offices that warned about the increasing possibility of major damage.
17. Transcript: the City in a Bowl. Science and Health. New Orleans. 20 Sept. 2002. 22 Sept. 2006 <http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_neworleans.html>.
Three years before Katrina ever came to be, this radio program was released. It is amazing how accurately the program ends up predicting the effect of a major flood crises. In addition, this shows discusses some of the past hurricanes to have hit Louisiana such as George and Camille. This illustrates how the cycle of carelessness is so easily repeated with each generation.
18. "Google Map of Storm Katrina (2005)." Map. Google Maps. Florida Hurricane Center. 22 Sept. 2006 <http://flhurricane.com/googlemap.php?2005s12>.
At this hurricane website, I found an excellent map that was loaded with information about Katrina. The map depicts the exact path of Katrina, when and where it was located at any specific day, its advisory level at that time, and also data such as wind speed, pressure and the like.
19. Brooks, Andrew. Channelized Rivers. Great Britain: John Wiley and Sons, 1998.
One of the biggest, if not the biggest issue is dealing with the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers. This book talks about good river divertment strategies, the right materials to use, and many other issues along those lines. The Atchafalaya in particular is already channeled to take some of the Mississippi Rivers.
20. Goudas, Constantine, Vincent May, George Katsiaris, and Theophanis Karambas, eds. Soft Shore Protection. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic, 2003
The sediment all around New Orleans is soft. This book discusses the best ways to solve this problem. It draws on past projects that have been either successful or not so successful. The book also draws on the Netherlands a lot and how they protect their soft, coastal soils.
21. Fischetti, Mark. "Protecting New Orleans." Scientific American 2006.
This article taken from Scientific American was a very valuable research to our comprehensive study of the levees in New Orleans. This article discusses the general ideas for some of the very solutions that our group will be proposing at the end of the year. Gates on the Mississippi, underwater breakwaters between islands, and a few ideas that we had previously considered and were encouraged by this article.
22. "Time to Move the Mississippi." New York Times 19 Sept. 2006.
This newspaper article was written to try and persuade New Orleans to re-route the Mississippi River before it was too late. The author claims that the disaster of Katrina should teach us that none of the levees constructed around Louisiana are trustworthy even if they were built by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Therefore, since the only thing protecting the city from disastrous Mississippi flooding are high levees, something must be done. Their conclusion is the best way to accomplish is this by moving the Mississippi entirely away from the city in order to ensure safety.
23. Wallace, Robert and Todd. "Action Plan for New Orleans: the New American City." Bring New Orleans Back Commission. Urban Planning Committee. 11 Jan. 2006. 11 Sept. 2006 <http://www.bringneworleansback.org/Portals/BringNewOrleansBack/Resources/Urban%20Planning%20Action%20Plan%20Final%20Report.pdf>.
What are group took from this article was its suggestion of implementing an organized system of levee committees that would deal with specific districts of New Orleans. These committees would also send representatives to an overseeing body that would in turn answer to the press, local governments and even state and federal governments.
24. Buhrman, Joan, and Jane Howell. "Lessons From Hurricane Katrina." American Society of Civil Engineers (2006). 15 Oct. 2006 <http://www.asce.org/pressroom/news/display_press.cfm?uid=2809>.
Safety is the focus of this news release. The ASCE is submitting a short summary of suggestions to New Orleans. This report blames an overall lack of safety measures and stresses that the seperate governments need to be better informed about the worst case scenario so that they can allocate money in a more efficient manner.
25. "New Orleans Hurricane Protection Projects Data." IPET. June 2006. US Army Corps of Engineers. 10 Oct. 2006 <https://ipet.wes.army.mil/>.
Of all our sources, this is possibly the most helpful. It is the actual report issued by the Interagency Performance Evaluation Taskforce (IPET) that performed a detailed inspection of the levee system in New Orleans after Katrina. Among other things, this article called out the US Army Corps of Engineers failures in the design of the faulty levees.
Comments and questions to
Adam Talsma