Science Cafe Columbus presents: Protecting New Orleans from Hurricanes: Restoring the Ecosystem Services of Wetlands
February 26th, 2009
Join us for an informal discussion about a scientific topic. Anyone is welcome, although seating may be limited. We will meet the first Wednesday of each month at The South Campus Gateway Landmark Movie Theater.
Food and drink are available for purchase at the Theatre.
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Have ideas for Cafe topics, or want to volunteer to be a guest speaker? Email us at: scicafe@osu.edu
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Date: March 4, 2009 6:30 pm (doors open at 6 pm)
Speaker: William J. Mitsch, Distinguished Professor of Environment and Natural Resources (Wetland Ecology) and Director, Wilma H. Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park
Title: Protecting New Orleans from Hurricanes: Restoring the Ecosystem Services of Wetlands
Summary: Hurricane Katrina of late August 2005 caused major damage to many Gulf Coast communities and cities including New Orleans and even permanently damaged a presidential administration that did not understand the magnitude of damage that can occur when we leave our cities vulnerable. The vulnerability of New Orleans has been a slow but steady deterioration of its “wet suit” as 4900 km2 of wetlands have disappeared since 1900, at a rate as high as 100 km2/yr. This is mainly caused by the isolation of the Mississippi River Delta from the Mississippi River which has been almost completely leveed to enhance ship transportation and by thousands of km of drainage canals such as the recently abandoned Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), a major canal dug to New Orleans in 1963 which killed thousands of hectares of forested wetlands that had, before that, also protected New Orleans from maritime storms. It is partially the funneling of the storm surge up MRGO (Mister GO) from Hurricane Katrina that led to the destruction of the deteriorating inner levee system and flooded the under sea-level New Orleans for 3 weeks. Ecological engineering approaches that rely principally on the energies of nature are the only economically reasonable way to restore the lost marshes that used to protect New Orleans. Several major river diversions that reconnect the river to its delta, thereby introducing river sediments to decrease the water depth and allow marsh plants to once again flourish are being attempted. Low-energy-cost restoration techniques that lead to sustainable protection of New Orleans must be emphasized–that is the role of ecological engineering.
About our speaker:
William J. Mitsch is Distinguished Professor of Environment and Natural Resources, Environmental Science Graduate Program, and Ecological Engineering at The Ohio State University and Director of the University’s 20-hectare Wilma H. Schiermeier Olentangy River Wetland Research Park.
Prior to arriving at Ohio State in 1986, he was on the faculties at Illinois Institute of Technology and University of Louisville. He received a B.S. in engineering at University of Notre Dame, and an M.E. (environmental engineering sciences) and Ph.D. (systems ecology) at University of Florida.
His research and teaching has focused on wetland biogeochemistry, wetland creation and restoration, ecological engineering, and ecosystem modeling. Dr. Mitsch has authored or co-authored over 400 papers, books, and other publications in ecological and environmental science. He has edited or co-authored 16 books including 4 editions of the standard wetlands textbook Wetlands (Mitsch and Gosselink, 2007), Ecological Engineering and Ecosystem Restoration (Mitsch and J?rgensen, 2004) and a forthcoming book Wetland Ecosystems (Mitsch et al. 2009). Dr. Mitsch gives an average of 15 invited lectures annually around the world.
Dr. Mitsch currently teaches wetland ecology and management and ecological restoration at Ohio State University. He has advised over 70 graduate students and post-docs and twelve are faculty at other universities such as University of Oklahoma, Texas A&M University, George Mason University, Auburn University, and Ohio State University. He is a frequent advisor to national (U.S. EPA, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sea Grant, NOAA, National Research Council) and international (UNEP, Ramsar, SCOPE, MISTRA-Sweden, IPCC) organizations on wetland and water resource matters.
Dr Mitsch is a AAAS Fellow and has been a Fulbright Fellow to Denmark (1986-87) and Botswana (2007). He has had sponsored research from many state, Federal, and private agencies and foundations. He has been involved in international collaborations in many countries including Denmark, Sweden, Spain, France, Estonia, Iceland, Costa Rica, China, Korea, Botswana, Egypt, Jordan, New Zealand, and Australia.
Among his awards, Dr. Mitsch and his frequent collaborator Sven E. J?rgensen of Denmark received the 2004 Stockholm Water Prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden on August 19, 2004 in Stockholm, Sweden. He also received the National Wetland Research Award (1996) from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Environmental Law Institute, a designation as a AAAS Fellow (1996) from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Distinguished Scholar at The Ohio State University (1998), CH2M-Hill Foundation National Award (2000), the Theodore M. Sperry Award (2005) for a career in ecosystem restoration from the Society for Ecological Restoration International (SER), and a SWS Lifetime Achievement Award (2007) from the Society of Wetland Scientists (SWS). His Olentangy River Wetland Research Park at Ohio State University achieved the status of Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in June 2008 from the Ramsar Convention in Switzerland.
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