Archive for August 29th, 2010

China Takes Another Stab at Resettlement With $62 Billion Water Plan

National Geographic: While the residents of Majestic Mansion, a new high-end real estate development on the outskirts of Beijing, splash in their glittering blue swimming pool, residents of lakeside Danjiangkou City, just 621 miles (1,000 kilometers) away in neighboring Hubei Province, are packing up their belongings. They are leaving because the Chinese government will soon flood their village to expand the local reservoir. It turns out these two communities are tied to each other by lopsided demands for water, ...

Sewage Could Spawn Hurricane Protection, Wetland Growth in New Orleans

National Geographic: Standing among the overgrown lots and derelict homes of New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, it is hard to imagine that the wetland abutting this neighborhood used to be a fisherman's paradise, houseboat community, and retreat destination. Bayou Bienvenue is now a degraded 30,000-acre swampy wasteland confined by years of flood management engineering--the Industrial Canal to the west, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to the north, the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) to the east, and an ...