Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

Space geodesy

Subsidence and flooding in New Orleans

Nature volume 441, pages 587–588 (2006)Cite this article

A subsidence map of the city offers insight into the failure of the levees during Hurricane Katrina.

Abstract

It has long been recognized that New Orleans is subsiding and is therefore susceptible to catastrophic flooding. Here we present a new subsidence map for the city, generated from space-based synthetic-aperture radar measurements, which reveals that parts of New Orleans underwent rapid subsidence in the three years before Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005. One such area is next to the Mississippi River–Gulf Outlet (MRGO) canal, where levees failed during the peak storm surge: the map indicates that this weakness could be explained by subsidence of a metre or more since their construction.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Map showing rate of subsidence for permanent scatterers in New Orleans and vicinity during 2002–05.
Figure 2: Relation between range change of permanent scatterers and elevation.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Miller, L. & Douglas, B. C. Nature 428, 406–409 (2004).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Dokka, R. K. Geology 34, 281–284 (2006).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Shinkle, K. D. & Dokka, R. K. NOAA Tech. Rep. 50, 135 (2004).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Burkett, V. R., Zilkoski, D. B. & Hart, D. in US Geol. Surv. Subsidence Int. Grp Conf., Proc. Tech. Meet., Galveston, Texas, Nov. 27–29, 2001 (eds Prince, K. R. & Galloway, D. L.) 63–70 (report 03-308, US Geol. Surv. Water Resour. Div., 2003).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Performance Evaluation of the New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Protection System Rep. 2 (Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force, 2006).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Miami, 33149, Florida, USA

    Timothy H. Dixon, Falk Amelung, Sang-Wan Kim & Shimon Wdowinski

  2. Tele-Rilevamento Europa, Milan, 20149, Italy

    Alessandro Ferretti & Fabrizio Novali

  3. Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, 20133, Italy

    Fabio Rocca

  4. Center for GeoInformatics, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 70803, Louisiana, USA

    Roy Dokka

  5. National Geodetic Survey, Silver Spring, 20910-3282, Maryland, USA

    Giovanni Sella

  6. Department of Earth Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, 33199, Florida, USA

    Dean Whitman

Authors
  1. Timothy H. Dixon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Falk Amelung
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Alessandro Ferretti
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Fabrizio Novali
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Fabio Rocca
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Roy Dokka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Giovanni Sella
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Sang-Wan Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Shimon Wdowinski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Dean Whitman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Timothy H. Dixon.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

A.F. and F.N. are employees of TRE, a company based in Milan, Italy. TRE supplied key software for the analysis and gave technical advice on some aspects of the data interpretation, such as how uncertainties are calculated.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dixon, T., Amelung, F., Ferretti, A. et al. Subsidence and flooding in New Orleans. Nature 441, 587–588 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/441587a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/441587a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing
pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy