Katrina Course work - Coursework Example

Katrina Work How long did it take the Mississippi R. to build southeast Louisiana? It took the Mississippi River over 7,000 years to buildSoutheast Louisiana.2. Why was sea level rising several thousand years ago? Works of humans such as swamp draining, levee and canal building enabled the rise of sea level as well as nature itself caused the rising sea levels.3. How did Lake Pontchartrain form? Lake Pontchartrain was formed due to the rise of sea level. Pine Island increases its area and the Mississippi River evolves stretching from southern to the eastern shorelines, thus form the lake.4. Why is a map of Louisiana coastline from 1930 (similar to most maps you see today) deceptive?

The map of the 1930 Louisiana coastline is deceptive because the 2,000 square miles of the land in 1930 had already vanished and is now open water.5. How many square miles of wetland are lost each year? 25 square meters of land are lost each year since 1930s. 6. What six factors cause the wetlands to disappear and the coastline to recede? The six factors that cause the wetlands to disappear and the coastline to move back are the levees and jetties, canals and channels, land subsidence, saltwater intrusion, invasive species, and the sea-level rise.7. One of these -- land subsidence -- causes land to sink at a rate of four feet every 100 years at the mouth of the Mississippi R.

What causes the sinking? The cause of the sinking is attributed to how humans deal with the environment and nature itself.8. What role do canals have in destroying the wetlands and marshes? The construction of the canals and channels destroys the healthy marshlands. 9. What role does salt water intrusion have in destroying the wetlands and marshes? The saltwater kills the plants thus no more roots will hold the water and keep the land from eroding during floods. Saltwater is turning marshlands into open water. 10. When - and why - were levees originally constructed?

Before the construction of the levees, the sediments appear, brought about by the annual flooding and this causes lands to build up. After the construction of the levees, city flooding can now be prevented but the result is that, the land is being robbed of the sediment and sinks.11. What negative effect did construction of the levees have? The negative effect of the construction of the levees is that, it stops the land from building sediments which leads the land to gradually sink. 12. What will happen to New Orleans by 2020 if the present situation is not changed?

If natural calamities and human’s abusive acts towards the environment will continue, New Orleans in 2020 will probably disappear from the face of the planet.13. Opinion question here… should we rebuild New Orleans? Why or why not? Yes, New Orleans should be rebuilt since the process of change as illustrated from 1930 to the present is quite alarming. If people will not do something about it, chances are, the city will eventually vanish.14. In rebuilding New Orleans, what steps should we take to prevent this from happening again?

Man should be cautious in dealing with nature and this includes minimizing the construction of levees, canals and channels.20. Was the hurricane expected? If yes, who predicted it?No, hurricane Katrina was not expected as it only started as a tropical depression.21. Why did it occur?One factor that can be attributed to the occurrence of the hurricane is global warming.22. What was the nature of hurricane, that is, describe how it evolved from a tropical storm to category 5, and then how/why it decreased in intensity?

Hurricane Katrina started as a tropical depression twelve due to the interaction of the tropical wave and the tropical depression. It transformed into the tropical storm status and in the span of 2 hours became a hurricane. The intensity ceased for a moment but came back growing from Category 3 hurricane to category 5 in the span of 9 hours. It decreased its intensity when it was absorbed by a frontal boundary.23. What were the causes of the flooding?Reports from the American Society of Civil Engineers pointed out that the multiple failures of the floodwalls of the city caused two-thirds of the flooding.24. Was this magnitude of a disaster expected?

Yes, because the continuous rise of the intensity of the hurricane from tropical depression was nonstop. It started as a tropical depression on the 23rd of August, and within just a few hours, it transformed into category 1, to category 3, and finally made its strongest as category 5 hurricane.25. Could the damage and lost of life been prevented? If yes, how?No, Hurricane Katrina was an extremely powerful storm. It was just too strong making it one of the five deadliest hurricanes in America and Katrina could easily change its intensity in just a few hours making it hard for the government and the people to make thorough preparations.26. Was the hurricane due to global warming?

Global warming can be attributed for the cause of the hurricane since the more heat is release in the atmosphere, the more it can trigger formations of storms and more intense hurricanes.27. What causes global warming?Global warming is caused by the release of methane gas in the atmosphere and other greenhouse gases, climate change, pollution, overpopulation and many other contributing factors.