and transportation properties. Settlennents are agglomerated into strips because of the 

 reciprocal relationship between each and the natural environmental restraints placed on 

 urban and built-up land. The strips are limited by a finite quantity of arable property, 

 reflected in land use patterns and threatened by continued land loss. 



As the petroleum business is a multibillion dollar industry, land loss will have a 

 dramatic effect on the region's oil- and gas-related economy. Logistic support sites will 

 be lost, thus complicating the movement of men and equipment to production sites. 

 More importantly, as the land erodes, so does the State's land/water boundary; 

 consequently, the outer limit of Louisiana's offshore zone moves shoreward. The end 

 result is Louisiana's oil royalties decrease by at least $20 million per mile of coastal 

 retreat and a highly significant source of revenue is changed. This is probably the single 

 most important immediate result of land loss and one that can change a number of 

 favorable advantages of living and working in Louisiana. 



CONCLUSIONS 



By nature coastal regions are the most continually changing zones on earth; they 

 represent one of the most viable and complex regions on the globe. Within this 

 environment there is a never ending interplay between the great forces and processes of 

 nature that are constantly resculpting the region's topography. Man has had relatively 

 little effect on these agents; he has no control over the natural processes that have for 

 centuries influenced the coast. He has, however, promoted directly and indirectly some 

 coastal modifications. The manmade elements that have altered flow regimes, sediment 

 patterns and vegetative "assemblages have created a problem. The problem is related 

 directly to man's interference with the Mississippi's flow regime. As a result, the 

 wetlands are out of balance. Land loss forces now supersede constructive forces thus 

 threatening the jobs, industries, and lifestyles of the people whose lives are tied directly 

 or indirectly to the coast. The final question is: "Can we afford the loss?" 



LITERATURE CITED 



Allen, P. P., and W. L. Anderson. 1955. More wildlife from our marshes and wetlands. 

 Pages 589-596 ]n Water. Yearbook of Agriculture, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 Washington, D. C. 



Aquanotes. 1981. Land loss: coastal zone crisis. Aquanotes 10:1-5 



Barrett, B. B. 1970. Water measurements of coastal Louisiana. Louisiana Wild Life and 

 Fisheries Commission, New Orleans. 



Barrett, B. B., and M. C. Gillespie. 1973. Primary factors which influence commercial 

 shrimp production in coastal Louisiana. Louisiana Wild Life and Fisheries 

 Commission. Tech. Bull. 9. 



Burkenroad, M. D. 1931. Notes on the Louisiana conch, Thais haemostoma Linn, in its 

 relation to the oyster Ostrea virginica . Ecology 12:656-664. 



Burts, H. M., and C. W. Carpenter. 1975. A guide to hunting in Louisiana, the hunter's 

 paradise. Louisiana Wild Life and Fisheries Commission, New Orleans. 



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