Human impacts and emerging mega-trends such as climate change and energy scarcity will impact natural resource management in this century. This is especially true for deltas because of their ecological and economic importance and their sensitivity to climate change. The Mississippi delta is one of the largest in the world and has been strongly impacted by human activities. Currently there is an ambitious plan for restoration of the delta. This book, by a renown group of delta experts, provides an overview of the challenges facing the delta and charts - a way forward to sustainable management.

This report presents the results of an investigation of relative sea level rise and delta-plain development in the Terrebonne Parish region of Louisiana, where rates of land loss and barrier island erosion are currently among the highest in the United States. Data from tide gage stations, geodetic leveling surveys, vibracores, and studies measuring cesium-37 activity in surface cores document a new chronology for the Terrebonne Parish region and reveal that, except immediately adjacent to the Atchafalaya delta complex, the current rates of wetland sedimentation are not sufficient to maintain the coastal marshes against the effects of relative sea level rise and subsidence. Over the next century, relative sea level in this region could rise 0.18-2.80 m, and the entire Terrebonne Parish delta plain faces catastrophic land loss and could not be converted to open water.