[framework] Golf courses are a composition of varied habitats ranging from sand dune to wetland, savanna woodlands to mature forests. As urbanization spreads, golf courses in urban areas have the potential to be developed and managed to be a desired wildlife habitat by utilizing the variety of habitats as well as meeting the needs of [...]

Nitrogen and phosphorus pollution ranks as one of the top causes of degradation in some U.S. waters for more than a decade. Large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus lead to regional water quality problems like algal blooms, hypoxia and declines in wildlife habitat. Agricultural Runoff Leading to Gulf Hypoxia from Patrick McGannon on Vimeo. “Aerobic [...]

{framework} Louisiana’s oil and gas infrastructure is a complex system. As a physical infrastructure it consists of wells, pipes, off-shore oil rigs, refining stations, submerged barges, and other technologies. It is also deeply embedded in natural ecosystems including freshwater wetlands, estuaries, and ocean environments. The built infrastructure has had a significant and often devastating impact [...]

The Mississippi River Delta is the area of land built up by alluvial deposits from the Mississippi River at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico. This process has led to the extension of the Louisiana coastline into the Gulf 15-50 miles and the creation of vast coastal wetlands and salt marsh.  The representation of [...]

FLUCTUATING INFASTRUCUTRE INTRO The water flow of the Mississippi has many factors that influence where it turns, bends, rises, falls, increases in speed, or even decreases in speed at some points. These factors are known as levees, dams, spur dikes, and locks. There are 29 locations where these locks/dams are located along the Mississippi, 27 [...]

Framework As the world’s energy demand continues to rise, there exists a concurrent increase in greenhouse gas emissions stemming from fossil fuels consumption.  As a result a need for renewable energy sources is rapidly expanding.  Biofuels represent a large segment for potential energy, but as ethanol has demonstrated, finding an energy source that doesn’t compete with [...]

At the eastern edge of the city of New Orleans, in southeastern Louisiana, two former wetland zones exist to the immediate south of Bayou Bienvenue as part of the area’s Central Wetland Unit.  Currently brackish, open-water lakes, the two site straddle the border between Orleans Parish and St. Bernard Parish.  In Orleans Parish, the Lower [...]

Treatment wetlands are either constructed or naturally occurring wetlands that are used in the process of treating stormwater runoff and/or effluent. The representation of a treatment wetland requires elucidating the infrastructural system and active systems from the evolving and dynamic biological systems. The two systems (infrastructural and biological) can be categorized as static and dynamic [...]