Institute for Water Resources

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. Last October, Pamela M. Collins, Ph.D. led a dozen other American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellows on an expedition to experience the Anacostia River “up close and personal” on a two hour tour in an open skiff from The Washington Navy Yard to Bladensburg, Maryland, and back. “The Anacostia River needs some love. … This river does not have a reputation as a space to enjoy greenery, wildlife, and recreation. Rather, it’s been a place you don’t go. … But things are changing.” During the excursion, the group saw examples of these positive changes, such as newly-planted wetland vegetation, well-maintained bike trails, and improved canoe docks. They also saw evidence to the contrary, with trash continuing to be a major problem. The whole story, with photos, can be found in a blog article authored by Dr. Collins and fellow AAAS Fellow Dr. Elizabeth Zeitler (Millennium Challenge Corporation). Dr. Collins is an environmental scientist with expertise in international relations, science policy, and public outreach. She earned a double major in Ecology and Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, where she contributed to studies of soil contamination and biogeochemistry with the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratories (CRREL, a part of ERDC) and did ecological field work in Costa Rica and southern Africa. Her doctoral research brought her to the Ecole Polytechnqiue Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, where her Ph.D. focused on GIS analysis and quantitative modeling of continental-scale vegetation change (and she added French and a bit of German to her Spanish skills). Between degrees, Dr. Collins volunteered as a Student Conservation Association interpretive ranger in Sequoia National Park in California, and she led the Swiss-American academic relations team at swissnex Boston before joining USACE’s Institute for Water Resources (IWR) as a Fellow in 2015.

MARRAKECH, MOROCCO. The 22nd Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) was held last month in Marrakech, Morocco. IWR and ICIWaRM Director Bob Pietrowsky represented USACE and IWR’s International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM), under the auspices of UNESCO. He also served on the Steering Committee for the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA). On 8 November, Mr. Pietrowsky delivered a keynote presentation to lead off a panel discussion on Improving Stakeholder Engagement in Decision Making to Combat Extreme Flood and Drought Impacts. The session was moderated by Dr. Anil Mishra, UNESCO IHP Secretariat, and was organized by UNESCO IHP in partnership with the International Water Association, along with the Stockholm International Water Institute and the World Water Council.

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. On November 7, 2016, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District (USACE NAB) and Norfolk District (NAO), National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), USACE Institute for Water Resources (IWR), and Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) hosted, moderated and facilitated a Stakeholder Workshop with more than 60 participants to kick off the Chesapeake Bay Comprehensive Water Resources and Restoration planning process. This process will develop a coordinated, comprehensive master plan within the Corps mission areas for restoring, preserving and protecting the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. The objectives of the workshop were to: 1. Identify Chesapeake Bay water resources and restoration needs USACE and others could address; discuss and prioritize actions USACE and others should undertake that will contribute the most to Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts; 2. Coordinate the Chesapeake Bay Comprehensive Water Resources and Restoration Plan (CBCP) with the actions of the Chesapeake Bay Program; Consider and avoid duplication of any ongoing or planned actions of other federal, state, and local agencies and non-governmental organizations; 3. Review planned geospatial analyses and identify additional sources of information or references (datasets, reports, plans), especially geospatial datasets, to incorporate into CBCP’s geospatial analyses that will be used to inform the study.

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.

MARRAKECH, MOROCCO. The public roll-out of the new mobile App iRAIN took place during the United Nations 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP22’s) Water Day earlier this month in Marrakech, Morocco. Robert Pietrowsky, Director of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s Institute for Water Resources (IWR) and International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management (ICIWaRM), represented the U.S. government in its collaboration on the App with the University California at Irvine’s Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing (CHRS) and UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme (IHP). iRAIN is a revolutionary App developed by Dr. Phu Nguyen at CHRS that provides for the first time, mobile access to near real-time rainfall estimates to everyone, at any time, and anywhere in the world. It represents an invitation for people everywhere to observe the impacts of the climate on the water cycle while facilitating their involvement in collecting local data for global precipitation monitoring. It allows users to visualize real-time global satellite precipitation observations, track extreme precipitation events worldwide, and report local rainfall information using crowd-sourcing functionality of the App to supplement the data. A useful feature of iRain is that real-time rainfall observation data can be easily shared through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Currently, iRain is available for iOS. A version for Android devices is under development.

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. Last month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Rock Island District, Institute for Water Resources, and local partners held a “Multi-Hazard Tournament” (MHT) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A MHT is a simulation exercise designed to aid decision-making by playing out potential strategies to reduce drought, flood risk, and other water-related risks. The tournament challenged Iowa-Cedar river basin stakeholders to jointly address issues of major flooding, severe droughts, and water quality. Broken into seven teams, the hum and competitive energy could be felt as teams discussed their options to reduce the impacts of forecasted climate conditions on the basin. Sixty participants ranged from federal, state, and local governments to academia, non-governmental organizations, and the agricultural sector. Investment options included restoring or adding wetland spaces, reclaiming property, raising houses out of flood zones, infrastructure improvements, and reinforcing levees. Participants quickly grew frustrated as they found their allotted funds for annual investments, based on realistic funding options in the Cedar River basin, significantly limited their ability to invest in basin infrastructure on an annual basis. Facing this limitation, teams began to innovate on how to capitalize on investments made in the previous turns and the importance of thinking strategically about long-term investments.