12.000 Solving Complex Problems

Isaac W. Lozada

Annotated Bibliography

 

“Climate.” National Geographic Atlas of the World. Eighth Edition.2005. The visuals made available by National Geographic provide good illustration of hurricane prone areas in the world as well as stimulating and easily interpretable maps of the New Orleans/Gulf Coast area that allow for better understanding of the geography of the Mississippi and southern Louisiana.

 

“Louisiana.” Oxford Atlas of North America. 2005. This reference was useful in providing a detailed and smaller scale map of the state of Louisiana. In so doing I was able see in more specific detail the geography of the state, New Orleans, and the course of the Mississippi.

 

Bischof, Günter. "Katrina Journal: What Needs to Be Done in New Orleans Now." History News Network 07 Nov 2005 17 Sep 2006 <http://hnn.us/articles/17756.html>. This article by Bischof provides an in depth look at the politics of Katrina involved in the rehabilitation of New Orleans. Especially made evident is the neglect on the part of the president of Louisiana's education and healthcare systems as they combat severe funding shortages and lack of government support.

 

Dean, Cornelia. "Mississippi River Needs to Be Diverted, Experts Say." New York Times (2006): Addressing many people's question about what needs to be done about New Orleans, this article blatantly states the need to allow for a freer flow of the Mississippi river mostly by diverting parts of it along other routes. In so doing, sediment buildup could be reduced within the river and increased along marshlands allowing for their buildup.

 

Hsu, Spencer. "Army Corps: Agency Lacks Plan to fix New Orleans levees." Washington Post (2006): This article writes of the Army Corp of Engineers' lack of an overall concept for the redevelopment of New Orleans. Having already been appropriated several billion dollars of funding, Hsu claims the Corp is simply spending what money has been allocated without designing a long-term strategy for the city.

 

Scott, Robert Travis. "Louisiana: State on track for coastal restoration, pending ballot approval." New Orleans Times-Picayune (2006): The state of Louisiana is on track to amend its constitution to create a state fund that would exist for the sole purpose of coastal restoration and while another amendment would give the state increased revenues were it to sell a legal settlement between tobacco companies and investors.

 

Grissett, Sheila. "Army Corps: Agency has yet to start many key New Orleans levee projects." New Orleans Times-Picayune (2006): In the face of stand-still bureaucracy, the Army Corp of Engineers has yet to start reconstruction projects of levees despite the funding appropriation over half a year ago. This article highlights the at times impeding slowness of government order.

 

Burnham, Michael. "Hurricanes: As Ernesto Looms, traders place bets on economic fallout." Greenwire 28 Aug 2006 16 Sep 2006 <http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2006/08/28/archive/1/?terms=hurricane%20katrina>. This source provided an interesting look at an financial result of the barrage of hurricanes endured by the American southeast last year: a hurricane hedge fund. Essentially, investors can now gamble on the economic fallout an approaching hurricane.

 

Staats, Eric. "Army Corps: Lake Pontchartrain Levees Almost Complete." Naples Daily News (2006): Essentially, the Army Corps of Engineers has mostly completed the reconstruction and improvement of the levees surrounding Lake Pontchartrain to the north of New Orleans. Corp officials claim the levees, having been reinforced, should do just fine.

 

Grissett, Sheila. "Corps Receives Fair Grade from Levees Group." New Orleans Times-Picayune (2006): This article referred to a current assessment of the corps reconstruction of levees in the the New Orleans area. Apparently, though having done large of amounts of work repairing levees, many of the same inefficiencies of the system and have yet to be addressed.

 

"Graphic of New Orleans Geography." The Voice of Hurricane and Disaster Recovery. 19 Sep 2006 <http://www.hurricane-katrina.org/new_orleans_flood_map/index.html>. The map provided on this site explained visually the up close geography of the city of New Orleans and the areas that were flooded and where levees breached.

 

"Hurricane Katrina's Inundation of New Orleans." New Orleans Times-Picayune 20 Sep 2006 <http://www.nola.com/katrina/graphics/flashflood.swf>. A very interesting graphic media illustration of the flooding of New Orleans as endured on August 29, 2005 during the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. Apparent from the media, well over half the city was inundated at some time.

 

"Map of New Orleans and Adjacent Parts of Jefferson & St. Bernard Parishes." 21 Sep 2006 <http://lsm.crt.state.la.us/lsmmaps/mappic.asp?name=1996.001.017.27.jpg&title=Map+of+New+Orleans+and+Adjacent+Parts+of+Jefferson+%26+St.+Bernard+Parishes>.  This historical map is a very good example of the original city of New Orleans. It illustrates very well the premise of the city: a city built on above-sea level river banks, never on sub-sea level ground.

 

Hayden, Thomas. "Super Storms, No End in Sight." National Geographic Magazine Aug 2006: 66-77. This article by National Geographic Magazine explains in detail the barrage of storms that occurred in 2005, their consequences, and prospects for the future of the American southeast. The science of hurricanes is also explained to some degree.

 

Scott, Robert Travis. "Army Corps: Levees need to be raised as much as 8 feet, engineers say." New Orleans Times-Picayune (2006): The Army Corps of Engineers has realized the need to raise certain levees by over 8 feet. Having adjusted their standards to the reality of today's stronger and more frequent storms, it has become apparent to the core to raise levees that withstand such storms.