A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the state and Nicholls State to bring a coastal center to the Thibodaux campus to study the effects of land loss in the Terrebonne and Atchafalya Basins. Nicholls President Jay Clune says this new partnership with the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and the state is vitally important.
“If we did nothing by 2100, 80% of our service area will go under water, so we have perhaps the most environmentally threatened student population on earth and for them it’s very personal.
According to Nicholls, The Terrebonne Basin has the highest rate of coastal land loss in the state with more than 30,000 acres of wetlands loss since 1932.
The facility will resemble the LSU Center for River Studies, famed for it’s huge model of the Mississippi River and it’s flow patterns. Clune says the facility at Nicholls will be a hub for wetlands protection research.
“We will test models on a physical model and we’ll also have computer models there,” said Clune .”It will help us because working with the University of New Orleans we are bringing back engineering to this campus.”
Clune says the center will focus on land loss in the Terrebonne Basin, and study why the Atchafalaya Basin has managed to be so resilient. He says much of their efforts will center on one beloved waterway.
“The Atchafalaya River is the only opportunity to push sediment into the Terrebonne Basin, which is sediment starved, there is really no other option at this point,” said Clune.
