Water is driven to find the shortest and quickest course from source to mouth and the Mississippi River is no exception. The river is fighting against modern engineering as it continues to crest. If it were allowed to flow freely, New Orlean's Atchafalaya River would capture the main flow of the Mississippi. However, thanks to a feat of modern engineering, the great river is forced to follow its current path through Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Some researchers believe the likelihood of major flooding increases each year due to this tension between water and engineering.
Craig Colten is Carl O. Sauer professor of Geography at Louisiana State University and author of "An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature."