THE YAZOO
SPONGE

Instructor

Kate Orff

Dilip da Cunha

Geeta Mehta

Justine Holzman

Adriana Chavez

Location

Vicksburg, Mississippi

Year

Summer 2021

Team Work

Ahmed Al Yaseen

Wenjuan Li

Scarlet Nga Chin Tong

The strategic opportunity is an environmentally sustainable alternative to the $300 million Yazoo Pump Project, which will reduce floods for 30 farmers in the Backwater Area. It will also dry out 67,000 acres of marsh, raising flood risk for 31,000 people who are already at risk. Instead, our plan suggests reinvesting the funds to create a democratized diffused network of natural and nature-based features for flood protection.

We propose weaving a new wet land ecology informed by the meander to absorb the significant projection of rainfall to build a sponge landscape network. Our project will transform a piece of farmland into a wetland, providing the local community with non-agricultural economic alternatives such as recreation, hunting, and selling materials to the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. The benefits of reintroducing these wetlands include fish and wildlife habitat. water filtering, and flood reduction.

Launch Out

We are stepping into a critical turning point globally as the sixth assessment report from IPCC warns us of the increasing shocks and stresses communities will experience due to climate change. Time is of the essence where frontline communities and major shore cities will need to face difficult decisions of managed retreat and socio-economic transitions to new sustainable industries.

The Mississippi River White Paper authored by David Muth outlines the need for a “whole-river restoration initiative” as a collective effort to prepare for future challenges nature will pose on us. It calls for a way to reimagine the overall functionality of the River that will bring a just transition for vulnerable communities living along the river, and improve the river’s ecological health.

Our project combines multiple key design elements derived from the Mississippi River White Paper.

Located in the lower regions of the Mississippi Delta, the Yazoo Sponge aims to embrace multiple principles from the White Paper such as Mitigating Agricultural Impacts, and Disaster Prevention and Recovery in the Floodplain to provide an ecologically and socially driven alternative to the currently planned controversial Yazoo Pump Project. The Yazoo Pump will cost $300 million to relieve floods for 30 farmers in the Backwater Area. The pump will also dry out 67,000 acres of wetland habitat and increase the flood risk for 31,000 already vulnerable residents. As an alternative, the Yazoo Sponge proposes reinvesting the funding to establish a democratized expanded network of natural and nature-based features for flood mitigation.