| he vast 2,800 km2 Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California, lies in a seismically active region and was originally marshland, whose reclamation started 150 years ago by building un-engineered levees on top of the organic soil. Today, after more than a century of intensive agricultural activities, the majority of the Delta inlands subsided below mean sea level, reducing the stability of the fragile embankment structures. With the chance of experiencing moderate earthquake activity in the Delta of up to 0.4g in the next 500 years, the potential of a massive levee system failure due to simultaneous breaching of levees poses a significant hazard. Consequences could include flooding of thousands of acres of agricultural farm land, draw-in of saline water from the Pacific Ocean causing a breakdown of Southern California's water supply system, destruction of the Delta's ecological environment and an estimated economic loss of up to... |
