River Basins and Coastal Systems Planning Within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (2004) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 13-22
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From page 13... ...
Stakeholder groups representing a wide range of interests are being given increasing influence in project planning and approval efforts. Environmental restoration and environmental mitigation now constitute a large and increasing portion of 13
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From page 14... ...
There can be a tension between the construction of smaller water projects and the broader goals of ecosystem restoration and integrated basin planning, which can require evaluation of a range of factors over large scales of space and time that exceed those historically associated with the development of a small water project. The complexity of modern water resources problems and increasing recognition that the impacts of a water project may extend well beyond its immediate boundaries emphasize that effective water resources planning and management require an integrated approach, an approach able to account for a wide range of objectives and consider a wide range of temporal and spatial scales.
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From page 15... ...
Modern water resources planning developed rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s in association with the construction of new dams and other water resources projects. Engineers dominated the emerging discipline of water resources planning as it became an important academic subject (Maass et al., 1962)
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From page 16... ...
As river basin planning moves ahead and the number of stakeholders in Corps projects increases, no one level of government has been able to effectively mediate these multiplying competing interests. In this diverse, multi-stakeholder environment, the Corps' efforts to promote integrated water resources planning increasingly encounter legal and jurisdictional factors over which it has little control.
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From page 17... ...
The Corps' role in water resources planning and management in river basins and coastal systems has become increasingly varied and complex, especially when compared to the era in which much of the nation's water resource infrastructure was built. In the future, the Corps may be required to modify existing facilities in response to actions under the Endangered Species Act and may find that these conflict with its obligations to provide navigation, as was the case in the summer of 2003 on the Missouri River.
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From page 18... ...
As defined in the Water Resources and Development Act 2000, this includes projects for "navigation, flood control, hurricane and storm damage reduction, emergency stream bank and shore protection, ecosystem restoration and protection, or any other water resources project carried out by the Corps." The specific statement of task for this panel, as stated earlier in Box ES-1, follows: Review and make recommendations on the Corps' planning, design, operation, and evaluation activities in the context of the nation's river basins and coastal systems. Topics covered will include economic and environmental benefits and costs over a range of time and space scales, multiple purpose formulation and evaluation methods, trade-off analysis, inter-agency cooperation, and the
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From page 19... ...
For example, the physical design of an urban stream restoration may be based largely on local factors, although the motivation for the project may be derived in large part from regional considerations regarding the yield of sediment and nutrients from the watershed. Similarly, the specific design of a flood mitigation project may depend primarily on local conditions of flow and runoff, although the impact of the project may have to be evaluated in terms of the cumulative effect of all projects in the river basin.
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From page 20... ...
The social and economic benefits and costs of water projects have long been a standard part of the Corps' planning procedures, and specific guidelines for such analyses are part of the Corps' planning portfolio. The existence of these guidelines does not ensure that these evaluations are always judged a success by all interested parties.
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From page 21... ...
Chapter 3 focuses on the environmental aspects of Corps projects, because these constitute an increasing portion of Corps activity, compel the need for an integrated approach to water project planning and management, and often dictate the spatial and temporal scales requiring investigation. A variety of issues, including knowledge gaps, environmental uncertainty, and the difficulty of balancing environmental and economic objectives, make environmental restoration and stewardship the most difficult challenge facing the Corps in implementing rational, integrated water project planning, as well as its regulatory programs.
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From page 22... ...
Chapter 5 considers a range of issues (knowledge, jurisdictional, institutional, regulatory, funding, guidance, and policy) that present barriers to a more consistent implementation of integrated water resources management in the river basin and coastal system context.
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