References

Bruin, D. d. (2006). Similarities and differences in the historical development of flood management in the alluvial stretches of the lower Mississippi basin and the Rhine basin. [Electronic version]. Irrigation and Drainage, 55(S1), S23-S54. Retrieved September 19, 2006, from Wiley InterScience database.
Bruin provides a comparison of flood management measures over time in the Rhine basin with that in the lower Mississippi basin.  Through use of diagrams, he is able to effectively illustrate how natural variations in both rivers have, eventually, been controlled.  Perhaps most usefully, Bruin methodically organizes and breaks down the different elements of flood control into four main categories - levees, floodways, main channel improvement and stabilization, and tributary basin improvement - in the Mississippi, and explains the current role of each in flood management.

Bukaveckas, P. A., Guelda, D. L., Jack, J., Koch, R., Sellers, T., & Shostell, J. (2005). Effects of point source loadings, sub-basin inputs and longitudinal variation in material retention on C, N and P delivery from the ohio river basin. [Electronic version]. Ecosystems, 8(7), 825-840. Retrieved September 19, 2006, from CSA Illumina database.
This paper examines the effects of point sources and other mechanisms on the movement of chemicals into the river, specifically from the Ohio river basin.  The study finds that agriculture in the Wabash river basin is largely responsible for the input of P and N into the river; wastewater treatment plants account for a number of other chemicals.  In studying the Mississippi, it is interesting to note not only channel flow and sedimentation but also some of the chemical properties of the river, as these have the potential to affect both human health farther downstream as well ecological characteristics that will be important with factors like the rebuilding of coastal wetlands.  If these chemicals are harmful to either, they can only be reduced by understanding the source of them.

Charlier, T. (2006). Saving the mighty Miss. State Legislatures, 32(4), 30.
Charlier argues that many years of controlling the Mississippi river for the purposes of helping navigation and preventing floods have caused damage to the environment in the area.  However, he also introduces an initiative by six states - Arkansas, Kentucky, Lousiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee - to reverse some of this damage, but through a large number of smaller-scale projects instead of a single huge project like the Army Corps of Engineers have been designing for the river in the past.

Core, J. (2002). Improved land-management practices protect watershed lakes. Agricultural Research, 50(10), 20.
Although this article largely focuses on land-management practices intended to prevent certain chemicals, largely from agricultural runoff, from entering lakes - especially the many oxbow lakes characteristic of the area around the Mississippi River - they are equally similarly applicable to reducing the impact of runoff into the Mississippi.  Core discusses techniques  - termed "best management practices" - such as low-till and no-till agriculture to reduce erosion, and taking advantage of riparian buffer zones to encourage microbial growth that may be able to break down, for example, certain herbicides.

Criss, R. E., & Shock, E. L. (2001). Flood enhancement through flood control. Geology, 29(10), 875-a-878.
In this study, Criss and Shock take a look at the changes in flood stages over time at different parts of the Mississippi River.  In areas with fewer levees like the Upper Mississippi, they see less of a change, while much of the lower Mississippi has a greater change, probably due to increased levees and channelization.  Thus, building and maintaining levee and channel systems creates a system that has the potential to keep building on itself - perhaps until it reaches some critical point at which levees and channelization will no longer be effective.

Dixon, T. H., Amelung, F., Ferretti, A., Novali, F., Rocca, F., & Dokka, R., et al. (2006). Space geodesy: Subsidence and flooding in New Orleans. [Electronic version]. Nature, 441, 587-588. Retrieved September 20, 2006, from CSA Illumina database.
This recent examination of subsidence in New Orleans not only suggests that New Orleans is subsiding, and quickly; it also suggests that rabid subsidence at certain areas may have actually caused levee weakening and been an additional cause of levee failure.  The authors suggest a number of possible causes of subsidence, and also imply that the more rabid subsidence of certain wetlands areas may not simply be the result of loss of sedimentation; that, as the river has been controlled, dessication and compaction have also each played a role.

Environmental science; redirecting the mouth of the mississippi river is proposed as a way to save the louisiana coast.(2006). Health Insurance Law Weekly, , 95.
The author draws heavily from quotes from Vince Neary, a Tennessee Tech University professor of civil and environmental engineering, to convey that large scale actions involving the actual transfer of much of the lower Mississippi to different outflow channels will probably be necessary in order to rebuild coastal wetlands which are both an environmental asset to the area and act as a buffer in the event of large storms.  However, the article also advances the viewpoint that environmental and economic issues must both be addressed, and that, in diverting the Mississipi, its role as a navigation center cannot simply be disregarded.  Neary also compares a Mississippi diversion and flood control project with a similar previous project in California's Napa River Estuary; more research into this project may yield additional insights.

Gordon, D. C. (2004). A remedy for a chronic dredging problem. Engineer, 34(4), 32.
Gordon describes the response of engineers to an area that required once to twice yearly dredging in order to maintain a minimum depth for barges and recreational boats.  This article, describing both traditional techniques to reduce the need for dredging as well as the comparably innovative response taken in this situation, is excellent for understanding the role of dredging and maintaining a minimum depth for navigation along the Mississippi River.

Gore, J. A., & Shields, F. D.,Jr. (1995). Can large rivers be restored? Bioscience, 45(3), 142.
Bringing the Mississippi River back to a more natural state would allow for a healthier ecosystem around it and allow sediment deposition along coastal wetland areas.  While the natural state would bring its own host of problems, Gore and Shields examine whether such a restoration is even possible.  They conclude that, through a number of techniques, it would be possible to rehabilitate portions of rivers, but not to actually restore any portion of a river - especially a large one so important to navigation like the Mississippi - to a pristine condition.

Hatfield, T. J. (2000). The Thompson bend riparian-corridor project: An innovative environmental solution to a major navigation and flood-control concern. Engineer, 30(4), 40.
The Thompson bend riparian-corridor project is one of the more innovative attempts at a flood-control plan.  A riparian zone planted with vegetation including specifically bred cottonwood trees, was originally intended as a non-intrusive method of reducing erosion and preventing a navigation channel from changing location.  Not only was it effective at this, but during a later flood, it succeeded in cutting water velocities in half while only about 40% of the trees themselves died.  This is a technique that deserves more attention as a cheaper and probably more environmentally-friendly method of stabilization and maintaining watercourses than traditional dikes.

Larson, E. (2004). Ruining the river. Utne, (122), 22.
The article provides an interesting look at how political the issues of dam and lock building along the Mississippi River is - and was, before hurricane Katrina.  Although groups may attempt to stop large scale projects and things like the building of larger locks for improved navigation, ultimately the decision is left up to whether Congress wishes for the project to continue, whereupon money will be allocated.

McLeod, R. (1990). An environmental snapshot of the mississippi. EPA Journal, 16(6), 34.
McLeod creates a clear look at the basic aspects of the Mississippi today, and compares this with aspects of the past.  He does so in a way that manages to consider large events of environmental importance - large old sources of pollution, for example - as well as the gradual channelization and control of the river.

Poff, N. L., & Hart, D. D. (2002). How dams vary and why it matters for the emerging science of dam removal. Bioscience, 52(8), 659.
The author provides a good introduction to the number of arguments supporting dam removal - among them, that dams affect downstream sedimentation and temperature, and thus their ecology.  As maintenance costs for dams increase, the author predicts that more will continue to be removed in the future; since dams are a major part of the current Mississippi river system, a good understanding of their role and their affect on the river is important to examining the effect of human intervention on the Mississippi.

Ribaudo, M. (2006). Hypoxia in the gulf: Addressing agriculture's contribution. Amber Waves, 4, 37.
Ribaudo provides a good explanation of the interaction between chemicals - largely agricultural runoff - in Mississippi River waters, and the environment that it runs into.  The Northern Gulf of Mexico has actually become one of the Western Hemisphere's largest oxygen-poor (hypoxic) zones, resulting in the death of large amounts of marine life in the area.  Scientists, he says, believe that this hypoxic zone is the result of nitrogen being with water from the Mississippi River.  The presence of the hypoxic zone, however, reduces the health of the water in the area, and has possible economic ramifications for the area.

Robison, R. (1995). Taming the Red River. Civil Engineering, 65(6), 64.
Although they focus on a different river than the Mississippi, this article concerning channelization methods provides a good parallel to what the Army Corps of Engineers has been doing to many rivers in the region over the years.  Knowing the methods of channelization and purpose of putting in locks is useful to researching just how the river in constricted, and considering any flaws in the current system.

Sparks, R. E. (1995). Need for ecosystem management of large rivers and their floodplains. Bioscience, 45(3), 168.
Sparks argues that maintaining the presence of large river-floodplain ecosystems is important to an area where they exist.  He compares this with historical states of the river, providing insite into both the current state of the river and the past state of the river, as well as the interaction between the river and the floodplain around it, both in the present and the past.

Sparks, R. E., Nelson, J. C., & Yin, Y. (1998). Naturalization of the flood regime in regulated rivers. Bioscience, 48(9), 706.
Sparks, Nelson, and Yin have produced a particularly helpful look flooding along the Mississippi River.  While they do introduce current methods of flood management to the reader, they also put these into a historical context; they compare the current situation of flooding with the historical situation, and trace through time the human interventions on the river and their results.  The many aspects of the river examined in this paper provide a complete and cohesive look at the Mississippi.

Upbin, B. (1998). A river of subsidies. Forbes, 161(6), 86.
Upbin provides a succint and somewhat ironic look at the role of barges on the Mississippi River - they are, he claims, more subsidized than any other form of transportation in the United States.  He argues against the allocation of even more additional money into the Mississippi River for the use of building additional locks to make it more easy to navigate.  Despite the sarcastic tone, this piece is an interesting take on the allocation of money in the Mississippi between taxpayers money going in as subsidies to support navigation versus how much money farmers and shippers are actually able to take in.

Wiener, J. G., et al. (1996). Mississippi river. Retrieved September 21, 2006 from http://biology.usgs.gov/s+t/SNT/noframe/ms137.htm
This website provides a good introduction and overview to many aspects of the Mississippi River.  It methodically divides the river into sections, and examines the defining characteristics of each, along with the role humans have played in that area over time.  Finally, it also takes a look at economic and ecological aspects of the river, both of which must be considered as "costs" which may be saved or lost when creating a plan for New Orleans and the Mississippi River.

Zhang, Y., & Schilling, K. E. (2006/6/15). Increasing streamflow and baseflow in mississippi river since the 1940's: Effect of land use change. Journal of Hydrology, 324(1-4), 412-422.
Zhang and Schilling convey the role of changing land use around the Mississippi river in adjusting streamflow, in terms of discharge from groundwater and runoff from land surfaces.  They explain changes in stream flow largely in terms of changing agriculture in the upper part of the basin - before the 1940's, most of the agriculture in the area was perennial vegetation; a switch to annual row crops such as corn and soybeans has, they claim, adjusted the method of water discharge in the area beyond the bounds of seasonal variation.  This is important in terms of understanding the role humans have had in affecting the flow of water through the Mississippi.