Annotated Bibliography

Mission 2010: Solving Complex Problems

Ying Chan
Team 3 Wetlands

Colten, Craig E. (Ed.) (2000). Transforming New Orleans and Its Environs.
Pittsburg: University of Pittsburg Press

Colten describes the dynamic changes that New Orleans underwent ever since Native Indians first settled. Both natural causes (the geography and hydrology) and human causes (pollution, modification of the settled land, implementation of levees) are making New Orleans more prone to natural disasters.

World Wildlife Fund. (1992). Statewide Wetland Strategies: A Guide to Protecting & Managing the Resource. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

This is a necessary guide for a person to understand how wetlands can be protected and the current status of wetlands. It addresses the local, state, and federal mechanisms for protecting wetlands and where to find data and information about wetlands. Basically, it shows the steps we must take to create a comprehensive plan to protect wetlands.

Gaddie, R., & Regens, J. (2000). Regulating Wetlands Protection: Environmental Federalism & the States. New York: State University of New York.

Legislation involving the regulation of wetlands in states that are not Louisiana (Michigan, New Jersey, Florida, Maryland) are introduced and the implementation problems are discussed. Heavily discussed is how section 404 of the Clean Water’s Act affect wetland regulation.

Goodwin, Richard H. (1975). Inland Wetlands of the United States.
New London: Connecticut College.
Pg. 180-193

This book provides very general and limited information about wetlands in Louisiana. However, there are a few maps delineating the location of wetlands in coastal Louisiana.

Fitzpatrick, Patrick J. (1999). Natural Disasters: Hurricanes.
Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO.

Fitzpatrick offers statistical data about categories of hurricanes, information about some major hurricanes that struck the coast over the last decades, biographies of people who researched hurricanes, and even what to do in a hurricane and what organizations to contact. The book includes plenty of practical information about hurricanes in general.

Emanuel, Kerry. (2005). Divine Wind: The History and Science of Hurricanes.
New York: Oxford University Press.

Emanuel covers the physics of how hurricanes are formed in the atmosphere and how they have changed the course of human history. There isn't information about how hurricanes affect wetlands; however, understanding hurricane patterns and how they make landfall may help us evaluate how effective wetlands are in absorbing storm surges.

Knapp, B., & Dunne, M. (2005). America’s Wetland: Louisiana’s Vanishing Coast.
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.

This pictorial book covers aspects of the life of New Orleans, the economic activity, and rebuilding of the wetlands. Photos of endangered species in New Orlean's wildlife sanctuaries, cypress tree forests, cajun food, and oil rigs provides us with an appreciation for the beauty and the bounty of the Louisiana coast.

Tidwell, Mike. (2006). Raging Tide: Strange Weather, Future Katrinas, Coming Death of America’s Coastal Cities. New York :Free Press

Tidwell illustrates the causes of the destruction of New Orleans due to flooding, the need for government action, the dangers of global warming, the importance of wetlands, and the fact that all coasts in the future may face the same fate as New Orleans if we don’t take action. He emphasizes that despite the clear signals and forewarnings about the danger of flooding, nothing was done about it. He believes that had the wetlands not been destroyed, the flooding of New Orleans would not have been a problem.

Randolph, John. (2004). Environmental Land Use Planning & Management.
Washington: Island Press.

This book describes the plans that can be implemented to reshape the wetlands; in particular it describes state and local wetland protection programs, wetland banking process, federal wetlands regulation, and methods of restoration. This is also useful for coming up with a cohesive plan to restore wetlands.

Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Conservation and Restoration Task Force and the Wetlands Conservation and Restoration Authority. (1998). Coast 2050: Toward a Sustainable Coastal Lousisana. [WWW Document]
URL: http://www.coast2050.gov/2050reports.htm
(visited 2006, September 21)

The Coast 2050 plan is a $14 billion project that includes strategies to rebuild marshes in different regions and the support ranking for each strategy. Of course, the plan was created in 1998; since then, some areas where restoration projects occurred have been destroyed by flooding due to hurricanes.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (2004). Louisiana Coastal Area: Louisiana-Ecosystem Restoration Plan. [WWW Document]
URL: http://www.lca.gov/final/main_report1.aspx
(visited 2006, September 21)

The LCA Plan is another plan to restore wetlands to the Louisiana coast. It consists of both short-term and long-term goals for wetland restoration.

United Stated Geological Survey. Coastal Louisiana. [WWW document]
URL: http://biology.usgs.gov/s+t/SNT/noframe/cg138.htm
(visited 2006, September 20)

This website provides maps and information about each basin located in the coastal zone of Louisiana. It delineates the rate of wetland loss in each basin, the major problems causing subsidence, and also restoration projects going on. The maps allow more attention to and focus on specific wetlands in a basin.

Tibbetts, John. (Jan., 2006). Louisiana’s Wetlands: A Lesson in Nature Appreciation.
Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 114, No. 1, pp. A40-A43.
URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00916765%28200601%29114%3A1%3CA40%3ALWALIN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-4

This article explains how the decision to drain the wetlands two centuries ago for development made New Orleans susceptible to destruction.

Environmental Protection Agency. (2000). Wetlands. [WWW document]
URL: http://www.epa.gov/305b/2000report/chp5.pdf#search=%22louisiana%20wetlands%20agricultural%20uses%22
(visited 2006, September 20)

The EPA creates some of the environmental guidelines for wetlands. The website provides a general overview about what are wetlands and the important roles they play in the ecosystem.

Council on Environmental Quality. (Apr 2006). Conserving America’s Wetlands 2006: Two Years of Progress Implementing the President’s Goal. [WWW document]
URL: http://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/wetlands_200604.pdf#search=%22louisiana%20wetlands%20agricultural%20uses%22
(visited 20 September 2006)

This report shows the Bush Administration’s goals and plans for rebuilding and protecting the wetlands in the United States. It restates a lot of programs like the Wildlife & Fishery Service that fund restoration programs and reassures that wetlands are being restored, but doesn't actually show changes in policy over wetlands or additional efforts to restore wetlands.

Walker, H., & Coleman, J., et al. (1987) Wetland Loss in Louisiana.
Geografiski Annaler. Series A, Physical Geography, Vol. 69, No. 1. pp. 189-200
URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0435
3676%281987%2969%3A1%3C189%3AWLIL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W

Wetland loss in Louisiana is due to many complex factors: physical, chemical, biological, cultural, and human factors, especially the building of dams and levees across the tributaries & distributaries of Mississippi R.

Bourne, Joel. (Sep. 2000). Louisiana’s Vanishing Wetlands: Going, Going…
Science, New Sews, Vol. 289, No. 5486, pp. 1860-1863.
URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0036-8075%2820000915%293%3A289%3A5486%3C1860%3ALVWGG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-7

The Coast 2050 Plan is a very long document. This article saves a lot of time by providing an overview of the goals of the Coast 2050 plan.

Mitsch, W., & Wilson, R. (Feb 1996) Improving the Success of Wetland Creation and Restoration with Know-How, Time, and Self-Design (in Wetland Mitigation).
Ecological Applications, vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 77-83.
URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1051-0761%28199602%296%3A1%3C77%3AITSOWC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-E

To redesign and restore wetlands, technology for this mitigation is still developing as the understanding of the function of wetlands over a long time scale is becoming more evident thru experimentation.

Roberts, Leslie. Wetlands. (Jun 1993). Trading is a Loser’s Game, Say Ecologists.
Science, New Series, Vol. 260, No. 5116, pg. 1890-1892.
URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0036-8075%2819930625%293%3A260%3A5116%3C1890%3AWTIALG%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B

The article argues against compensatory mitigation and the no-net loss goal for wetland restoration. People can develop on natural wetlands as long as they compensate the loss by building wetlands in other areas or taking part in a restoration project, but trading natural wetlands for randomly created ones is not a good deal.

Hopkinson, C., & Gosselink, J. et al. (Summer 1978). Aboveground Production of Seven Marsh Plant Species in Coastal Louisiana.
Ecology, Vol. 59, No. 4, pp. 760-769.
URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0012-9658%28197822%2959%3A4%3C760%3AAPOSMP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0

Scientists track the growth of 7 plant species found along Louisiana’s coastal marshes over a 2-yr period. Species with significant growth could be utilized to repopulate marshes with the vegetation.

U.S. Geological Survey. Suface-Water Hydrology of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in South-Central Louisiana, 1996-99.
This report created in 2003 looks at the hydrology of the wetland areas in the middle segment of coastal Louisiana intercepting the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. The USGS measured discharge rates of the GIWW into monitored sites to characterize its flow. Understanding the water movement along the GIWW is important for determining the effect of freshwater and sediments on wetlands.