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New Orleans EMPACT Project
EMPACT - Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking
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Photo 14: Coastal Louisiana is losing, on average, between 25 and 35 square miles of land annually -- that's more than one football field every 30 minutes. Louisiana has 40 percent of the Lower 48 states' coastal wetlands and 80 percent of the nation's total wetland loss. These valuable wetlands are the nursery grounds for fisheries, a buffer that protects developed areas from storm surges, and a filtering system for pollutants carried in urban runoff. Partners in the project hope the EMPACT monitor will provide valuable before and after data of the effects of diverting freshwater from the Mississippi River into coastal areas being overtaken by saltwater.
