NOLA is sinking - NASA maps show the rate

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Using NASA airborne radar, scientists have shown the degree to which New Orleans and its surrounding areas are sinking each year. Mostly caused by groundwater extraction, it’s yet another disaster in the making.

These new maps, produced by researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Center for Geoinformatics at Louisiana State University, are the most accurate and detailed yet of the the region’s sinking pattern. The data for the study, which now appears in Journal of Geophysical Research, was collected from June 2009 to July 2012.

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In New Orleans, it’s caused by groundwater pumping and dewatering (i.e. pumping away surface water to prevent standing water and soggy ground).

The most severe sinking was observed upriver along the Mississippi River around major industrial areas, and in Michoud. Both of these areas experience drops of about two inches each year. Other notable drops in elevation were measured in the city’s Upper and Lower 9th Ward, and in Metairie, where the measured ground movements were linked to water levels in the Mississippi River.

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