Institute for Water Resources

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. To help support the mission and aid in better decision-making, the USACE’s Institute for Water Resources and the USACE Readiness Support Center have collaborated on the development and use of computer models that provide emergency managers and responders with a first look at the potential severity of a storm and are intended to set the “scale and scope” of the storm event and potential mission assignments. “The results of these models are also shared with other federal, state and local partners to help them make better risk informed decisions during the response and recovery phases of an event,” stated IWR’s Chad Markin, the USACE Lead for the Disaster Impact Modeling efforts. Through the use of these geospatial tools, the USACE can provide estimates of possible debris volumes, number of people and households likely within hurricane force winds, and possible temporary roofing, temporary housing needs, and potential impacts to critical infrastructure starting about three days prior to a forecasted hurricane landfall. The models are then updated every 6 hours when new advisories are issued by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) or Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) forecast times, the speed of a storm and estimated time of landfall.

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. This summer a team from the USACE’s Institute for Water Resources (IWR) comprised of Drs. William Logan, Jennifer Olszewski, and Guillermo Mendoza, led a training workshop in the Dominican Republic to help prepare a project management plan (PMP) using a Shared Vision Planning (SVP) process for the city of Santiago de Caballeros. SVP integrates traditional water resources planning processes with structured public participation and collaborative computer modeling. The engagement included CORASAAN (Corporación del Acueducto y Alcantarillado de Santiago, the city's water utility company), INDRHI (Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidráulicos, the national water resources institute), the Engineering Department of the Catholic University of Madre Maestra, as well as stakeholders from irrigation districts and the Ministry of the Environment. Representatives from the hydropower industry were not present at this meeting but plans for their engagement were developed. During the workshop, the Dominican PMP teams, with IWR assistance, developed a work plan for the sustainable management of water resources in the Yaque del Norte basin. The group developed a problem statement, objectives, metrics and a conceptual decision support model as part of the SVP process. The participants listed and prioritized the most important problems facing the upper, middle, and lower sub-basins within the Yaque del Norte basin. Two examples of the problems they brought up include raw wastewater flowing into streams feeding irrigation channels, and irrigation channels with severe sedimentation. In fact, the team members had an opportunity to see some of the issues in person during a site visit to a location where an irrigation channel is experiencing severe sedimentation.

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. Representatives from the Mekong River Commission (MeRC) and Taiwan Water Resources Agency (TWRA) visited the National Capital Region office of the Institute for Water Resources (IWR) on 22 August 2016 to discuss opportunities for collaboration between various water management agencies in the Mekong River region and TWRA with members of IWR and its International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM). The discussions focused on themes of flood risk management, transboundary water management issues, water supply, hydropower, sediment management, and collaborative planning techniques. Members of the Mekong River Commission including Mr. Pham Tuan Phan, Chief Executive Officer of the Commission, Dr. Inthavy Akhalath, acting Secretary General of the Lao National Mekong Committee Secretariat (LNMCS), and Dr. Phoumy Vongleck of the Lao Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (LMNRE) joined the discussion, along with Dr. Chien-Hsin Lai, Deputy Director General of the TWRA, and Dr. Song-Yue Yang of the TWRA and Water Resources Planning Institute. The visitors were escorted by Mr. John Emerson of USACE’s Pacific Ocean Division (POD) and Dr. Michelle Haynes of IWR.

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. The Institute for Water Resources (IWR) has just released a new handbook entitled “Compensatory Mitigation Site Protection Instrument Handbook for the Corps Regulatory Program” to provide a reference resource for Corps district regulatory staff involved with ensuring that mitigation projects are protected. Under the 2008 Corps-EPA Mitigation Rule (33 CFR 332/40 CFR part 230 Subpart J) all compensatory mitigation plans required for Department of the Army (DA) permits must have/address 12 fundamental elements. One of these elements is a “site protection instrument” to ensure long-term protection of the compensatory mitigation site. The site protection instrument must protect the aquatic habitats (including wetland and streams), riparian areas, buffers, and uplands that make up the compensatory mitigation project. Site protection must be provided through real estate instruments or other available mechanisms, as appropriate.

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. Exposure to flooding and other environmental hazards often fall disproportionately on the most vulnerable people in our communities. Those who lack access to education, adequate housing, economic resources, health care, and social networks have the fewest resources to prepare for a flood and often live in the highest-risk locations. Children, the elderly, and those with physical disabilities are also more vulnerable. “Social effects, in a water resources context, refer to how the constituents of life that influence personal and group definitions of satisfaction, well-being, and happiness, are affected by some water resources condition or proposed intervention, ” said Susan Durden, a senior economist at the U.S. Army Engineer Institute for Water Resources (IWR). Since social vulnerability is one of those key social effects, the USACE has developed a new primer entitled Identification and Engagement of Socially Vulnerable Populations to address vulnerable populations in evaluating potential projects, studies, or regulatory decisions. The primer is intended to help Corps personnel and its partners understand the importance of identifying and engaging those individuals and groups who are more vulnerable to floods and other environmental hazards. It will be useful to all USACE programs and can also serve other government agency programs.

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. Move over Bobber (The Corps’ Water Safety Dog), robots are becoming the Corps’ newest best friend. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is utilizing land, water and air-based robots to complete a variety of missions. These robots can gather imagery and measurements, collect or drop-off items, conduct inspections, and more! New robots and functions are being explored throughout the federal government to advance Corps missions further. Check out Yeti, a robotic rover developed at the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) - Cold Regional Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL). This rover conducts ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys to characterize the terrain in order to identify any potential safety hazards. What other kinds of information can these robots collect? Working with the San Francisco District, a team of students from Vallejo High School trained their rover to inspect the toe drain on the Coyote Dam and assess conditions of the pipe. Charles comes in weighing at 7 pounds, about the same size as a Chihuahua.

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. More than fifty project delivery teams (PDTs) across all USACE divisions have discovered IWR-APT as a “go to” tool for their planning studies. IWR-APT “makes the new SMART planning requirements easier to track. It provides a central location to house and create our SMART Planning deliverables. It is also easy to use and provides consistency in our documents,” according to Samantha Borer, a plan formulator for the Jacksonville District who has used APT on multiple projects. IWR-APT, short for Institute for Water Resources – Assistance for Planning Teams, is an online tool available to USACE PDT members at http://iwr-apt.planUSACE.us. APT encourages collaboration, transparency, accountability, consistent and quality products, and sharing lessons learned. APT has robust capabilities such as the Risk Register, Decision Management Plan (DMP), Decision Log, Study Issue Checklist, and SMART Planning Deliverable Workflow and more! APT has transformed these Excel or Word templates to a digital application with “just-in-time” training to help the PDT better understand the intent, purpose, and deliverable requirements. PDTs can be assured that the “latest and greatest” versions for their project will always be at their fingertips and ready for no fuss printing to pre-formatted pdf.

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. The US Section of the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure (PIANC USA) partnered with the American Society of Civil Engineers’ Coasts, Oceans, Ports, and Rivers Institute on the PORTS 2016 Conference, which was held June 12-15, 2016 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The theme of the conference was “Ports: Gateways to a World of Opportunities”, and attendance was excellent with over 600 participants. PIANC USA First Delegate, the Honorable Jo-Ellen Darcy (Assistant Secretary of the Army – Civil Works), spoke at the Opening Plenary Session. She introduced PIANC to this broad audience, emphasizing the benefits of participation in international technical working groups. She also discussed in some detail PIANC’s Think Climate Initiative and the “Navigating a Changing Climate” Action Plan. She encouraged all to learn more about PIANC, and specifically invited everyone to attend the PIANC Technical Breakfast during the conference.