Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Published: 2000-11-20
Total Pages: 217
ISBN-13: 0309071364
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Reducing flood damage is a complex task that requires multidisciplinary understanding of the earth sciences and civil engineering. In addressing this task the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers employs its expertise in hydrology, hydraulics, and geotechnical and structural engineering. Dams, levees, and other river-training works must be sized to local conditions; geotechnical theories and applications help ensure that structures will safely withstand potential hydraulic and seismic forces; and economic considerations must be balanced to ensure that reductions in flood damages are proportionate with project costs and associated impacts on social, economic, and environmental values. A new National Research Council report, Risk Analysis and Uncertainty in Flood Damage Reduction Studies, reviews the Corps of Engineers' risk-based techniques in its flood damage reduction studies and makes recommendations for improving these techniques. Areas in which the Corps has made good progress are noted, and several steps that could improve the Corps' risk-based techniques in engineering and economics applications for flood damage reduction are identified. The report also includes recommendations for improving the federal levee certification program, for broadening the scope of flood damage reduction planning, and for improving communication of risk-based concepts.
Author:
Publisher:
Published: 2000
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) policy is to apply risk-based analysis in the formulation and evaluation of flood damage reduction projects. These projects include dams and reservoirs, levees and flood walls, diversions, channel modifications, bypass channels, and a variety of nonstructural measures. Most projects include more than one measure, particularly projects that include reservoirs. This policy is viewed as a significant step forward in improving the basis for Corps project development. The risk-based analysis approach explicitly incorporates uncertainty of key parameters and functions into project formulation, benefits, and performance analyses. Particular focus is the impact of the uncertainty in the discharge-probability, elevation-discharge, and elevation-damage functions that represent effects of the proposed protective works. Reservoir projects that reduce flood damage result in a downstream reduction in flood frequency. This paper briefly describes the risk-based analysis approach in contrast to historical project development study methods, and presents results of a recent risk-based analysis for the American River (near Sacramento, California, USA) project studies. Comments are offered on technical issues of methods and data, communication of risk-based analysis results with local officials and the public, and project design implications of the policy.
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Published: 1999-04-29
Total Pages: 121
ISBN-13: 0309060974
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has long been one of the federal government's key agencies in planning the uses of the nation's waterways and water resources. Though responsible for a range of water-related programs, the Corps's two traditional programs have been flood damage reduction and navigation enhancement. The water resource needs of the nation, however, have for decades been shifting away from engineered control of watersheds toward restoration of ecosystem services and natural hydrologic variability. In response to these shifting needs, legislation was enacted in 1990 which initiated the Corps's involvement in ecological restoration, which is now on par with the Corps's traditional flood damage reduction and navigation roles. This book provides an analysis of the Corps's efforts in ecological restoration, and provides broader recommendations on how the corps might streamline their planning process. It also assesses the impacts of federal legislation on the Corps planning and projects, and provides recommendations on how relevant federal policies might be altered in order to improve Corps planning. Another important shift affecting the Corps has been federal cost-sharing arrangements (enacted in 1986), mandating greater financial participation in Corps water projects by local co-sponsors. The book describes how this has affected the Corps-sponsor relationship, and comments upon how each group must adjust to new planning and political realities.
Author: Yacov Haimes
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Published: 2013-06-29
Total Pages: 292
ISBN-13: 1489921680
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Ronald M. North President Universities Council on Water Resources People sense intuitively that the world in which we live is not free of risk. Every decision, every action, even the refusal to either act or decide involves some element of risk. Perhaps, because we accept relatively low levels of risk in our daily activi ties, we tend to minimize the existence of risk and thereby fail to include risk assessment in those decisions and actions which could be improved through a risk assessment process. However, our casual approach to risk assessment seems to stem largely from the diffi culties inherent in measuring risk rather than from any lack of cognizance of the existence of risk. This conclusion is evidenced by the many statements in official documents relating to planning and evaluation which suggest that risk assessments should be con ducted but do not provide the mechanism for such assessments nor do they encourage their consideration in the decision making process. This conference on Risk/Benefit Analysis in Water Resources Planning and Management is notable because it attempts to identify and evaluate the mechanisms available for risk assessment which might be useful in water resources planning and management efforts. These proceedings bring together the thoughts of professional per sons who have struggled with the problems of risk assessment and who have contributed to the refinement of both theoretical and pragmatic solutions for the improvement of risk assessment processes.
Author: Paul Samuels
Publisher: CRC Press
Published: 2008-10-01
Total Pages: 1772
ISBN-13: 0203883020
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Floods cause distress and damage wherever and whenever they happen. Flooding from rivers, estuaries and the sea threatens many millions of people worldwide and economic and insurance losses from flooding have increased significantly since 1990. Across the European Union, flood management policy is changing in response to the EU Directive on the ass
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Published: 1995-09-21
Total Pages: 249
ISBN-13: 0309176255
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This book reviews the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (USACE) investigations of flood control options for the American River basin and evaluates flood control feasibility studies for the watershed, with attention to the contingency assumptions, hydrologic methods, and other analyses supporting the flood control options. This book provides detailed comments on many technical issues, including a careful review of the 1991 National Research Council report American River Watershed Investigation, and looks beyond the Sacramento case to broader questions about the nation's approach to flood risk management. It discusses how to utilize information available about flood hazard reduction alternatives for the American River basin, the potential benefits provided by various alternatives, the impacts of alternatives on environmental resources and ecosystems, and the trade-offs inherent in any choice among alternatives which does not lie in the realm of scientists and engineers, but in the arena of public decisionmaking.
Author: Martina Zeleňáková
Publisher: Springer
Published: 2017-02-07
Total Pages: 138
ISBN-13: 3319521500
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →This book explores the benefits of using risk analysis techniques in the evaluation of flood protection structures, and examines the results of the environmental impact assessment for selected planned flood protection projects. The objective of the book is to propose a methodology for environmental impact assessment in water management. In more detail, flood mitigation measures are investigated with the aim of selecting the best option for the approval process. This methodology is intended to streamline the process of environmental impact assessment for structures in the field of the water management. The book’s environmental impact assessment system for water management structures analyzes the respective risks for different options. The results are intended to support the selection of future projects that pose minimum risks to the environment. Comparison of alternatives and designation of the optimal variant are implemented on the basis of selected criteria that objectively describe the characteristics of the planned alternatives and their respective impacts on the environment. The proposed Guideline for environmental impact assessment of flood protection objects employs multi-parametric risk analysis, a method intended to not only enhance the transparency and sensitivity of the evaluation process, but also successfully addresses the requirements of environmental impact assessment systems in the European Union. These modifications are intended to improve the outcomes of the environmental impact assessment, but may also be applied to other infrastructure projects. The case study proves that the primary aim – to improve transparency and minimize subjectivity in the environmental impact assessment process specific to flood protection structure projects – is met for the planned project in Kružlov, Slovakia.
Author: United States. Army. Corps of Engineers
Publisher:
Published: 1996
Total Pages: 82
ISBN-13:
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