Masters Theses

Date of Award

8-1982

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Geography

Major Professor

Theodore H. Schmudde

Committee Members

Edwin H. Hammond, James R. Carter

Abstract

The economic benefits occurring to production of crop have been used as a justification for construction of levees on the lower Mississippi floodplain. The purpose of this thesis is to determine if levee protection of agricultural land does in fact prevent severe crop reduction or loss in west Tennessee. The timing of the Mississippi floods is examined to evaluate the extent to which major floods, because of their seasonality, interfere with crop production. A water budget analysis is used to establish the field moisture condition of land protected by levees when floods occur during the crop growing season. The benefit-cost basis by which a levee in west Tennessee was justified is reviewed and an attempt made to evaluate the economic validity of the levee argument. It is concluded that most of the Mississippi floods occur before the normal growing season of the major crop. Tributary floods or standing water from excess local precipitation generally make cultivation of the levee-protected lands impossible when the Mississippi is in flood during the growing season. During recent years, flood related crop loss has been averted by delaying planting or replanting the crop. The benefits afforded to agriculture by the levee are overestimated, and if all of the costs of levee protection are considered levee protection of agricultural land is not cost effective. Levee protection of agricultural land in west Tennessee is neither necessary nor can it be economically justified for that purpose.

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