Institute for Water Resources

CPCX activities consist of support to USACE Headquarters, training and outreach programs, and a direct technical assistance program.  Specific initiatives include:

• Annual Report on the Use of Environmental Conflict Resolution Report for the Council on Environmental Quality.
• CPCX sponsored 16 Public Involvement Specialists.
• Assessing and developing the Corps conflict resolution and collaborative capacity. The Collaborative Capacity Assessment Initiative resulted in various recommendations at the organizational and individual level designed to improve collaborative capacity.
• Managing an internal Risk Communication & Public Participation Community of Practice (CoP) (corps only) to connect practitioners and enable the sharing of best practices, and building an internal Find a Facilitator Database.
• Creating a roster of conflict resolution and public participation experts that is available and relevant to Corps missions.
• Assisting Headquarters in revising Engineering Regulations, Engineering Circulars, Technical Notes and other statements of USACE doctrine relevant to conflict resolution and public participation.
• Promoting Shared Vision Planning, a conflict resolution method that integrates planning principles, systems modeling, and stakeholder collaboration into a practical forum for making resource management decisions. Most recently, the CPCX published “How to Conduct a Shared Vision Planning Process” (pdf, 875 KB).
• Developing improved methods to encourage public involvement in selecting appropriate flood risk management plans. Part of the Corps program “Actions for Change,” this initiative supports Action 10 of this program, which seeks to “Establish Public Involvement in Risk Reduction Strategies.” It is closely coordinated with the Corps National Flood Risk Management Program. The latest framework and methods were documented in the draft report “Public Involvement Framework & Implementation Plan for Flood Risk Management,” for the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force Hurricane Protection Decision Chronology Implementation Team.
• Promoting international collaboration to manage transboundary water resources in Partnership with another Corps center, ICIWaRM. Tasks include preparations for the World Water Forum, improving the capacity of the Mekong River Commission, and working with the International Joint Commission. In 2010, the CPCX conducted a week-long Shared Vision Planning workshop in the Chili River Basin in Peru as part of its international capacity-building efforts. A similar workshop was also conducted in 2012 with the Mekong River Commission in Bangkok, Thailand.
• Providing direct support to field districts on various projects, such as coordinating the Missouri River Flood Task Force or facilitating the Indian Creek Visioning process, and recommending ways to improve public involvement
• Providing facilitators for district processes.
• Creating an internal lessons learned database of case studies on USACE Collaboration
• Support US Government disaster recovery efforts through identifying lessons learned in risk communication and supporting multi-stakeholder visioning as part of Sandy recovery efforts.
• Identify and Support Public Involvement Specialists at the District level to provide project-level assistance in public participation and collaborative processes.
• Grow the Collaboration and Public Participation Community of Practice (CoP) through its webinar series, newsletter, and SharePoint site, linking more than 400 members of this cross-stove pipe CoP.
• Support “Public Involvement in Flood Risk Management” Pilots – Conduct 12 pilot projects in support of ongoing flood risk management activities to test application of public involvement concepts from the Flood Risk Management Public Involvement Framework and Implementation Plan.
• Lead national multi-stakeholder efforts on Collaborative Modeling including publications, symposia and webinars on the Use of Collaborative Modeling for Integrated Water Management.
• In-person, distance, and blended training for USACE and its partners in Public Involvement, Facilitation, Risk Communication, Conflict Resolution, Shared Vision Planning, and Engaging Socially Vulnerable Communities. 
• Support Watershed-based Budgeting through assistance in Multi-stakeholder priority setting.
• Support Planning Transformation through charette facilitation and training support.
• Provide public involvement and communications support for the study, "U.S. Port and Inland Waterways Modernization Strategy." CPC worked to ensure stakeholders were aware of, and contributed to, the development of options for U.S. port and inland waterways modernization in light of an expected increase in post-panamax vessels.
• In FY14, the National Flood Risk Management Program