Changing Course: The STUDIO MISI-ZIIBI Team_ NEW MISI-ZIIBI LIVING DELTA

Acknowledging that the Mississippi River Delta will continue to evolve over the next 100 years, the new MISI-ZIIBI LIVING DELTA for the 22^nd century – a healthy, productive and resilient delta - relies on a synergistic and leveraged combination of delta building, the working delta, and delta living. This new Delta will be more sustainable and smaller in area, but have faster vertical accretion rates than earlier deltas, which keeps pace with current and future rates of global sea-level rise. The vision for the new Delta will be achieved through ECO 3D [dredge + dump, dredge-siphon, divert] – in which the bounded Mississippi River will be fragmented into a network of constructed distributaries, using sediment diversions, in order to feed the wetlands with the necessary sediment for delta building. Although the diversions will be constructed and managed, the delta formation in the receiving basins is self-organizing and naturally formed.

In addition, we propose to shorten the Mississippi River and construct a new navigation entry point further upstream with a new distributary node near West Point à la Hache. The realigned and shortened river provides more efficient methods to use the sediment loads and increase safety and navigation reliability, and lower flood levels along the Mississippi River in this area. Ensuring that the navigation and marine economy continues to expand the river will be dredged to 50ft deep, the existing ports and Port Fourchon expanded, existing navigable inland water bodies maintained, and a new port constructed in the new Bird’s Foot.

We propose retreat from the southern rim of the existing Delta in order to assure long-term sustainability of the regions with the highest population density and economic productivity. The concept of DELTA LIVING is about embracing the ideology and cultural aspect of communities by enabling a means to continue to live with the Delta in new ways, and accommodating a regional growth strategy of safe, strong, and distinctive communities. Overall, the MISI-ZIIBI LIVING DELTA uses constructed and natural ecological landscapes to provide for both the safe and sustainable inhabitance of the Delta region while encouraging a vibrant, growing and sustainable economy that thrives in light of unpredictable and long-term changes.