Louisiana State University and Tulane University are receiving a $22 million from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to lead a consortium seeking ways to save the ecologically fragile Lower Mississippi River Delta. The consortium will explore ways to combat the effects of increasingly intense hurricanes, rising seas, ground subsidence and the diminishing of river sediment that builds the delta.
The University of Southern Mississippi, Jackson State University and Alcorn State University are participating in the consortium along with Southern University of Baton Rouge, Xavier University of New Orleans, Grambling State University and Dillard University -- historically black institutions like Jackson State and Alcorn State -- and the University of Central Florida, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, the Water Institute of the Gulf and the College of William & Mary in Virginia.
They will work with students in middle schools and high schools to increase the number of persons from underrepresented groups participating in coastal research and activities.
“A sustainable Mississippi River Delta is critical for both the region and the nation,” said Colonel Cullen A. Jones, commander of the New Orleans district for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “We look forward to the insight and contributions of the consortium as we collectively strive to identify the best long-term management approach for the river.”