Water Resources Planning for the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterway (2005) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
2 The National Research Council "216" Studies: Corps of Engineers Water Resources Project Planning
2 The National Research Council "216" Studies: Corps of Engineers Water Resources Project Planning
Pages 12-23
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From page 12... ...
adaptive management; (3) analytical methods; and (4)
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From page 13... ...
Other panels (Adaptive Management, and River Basins and Coastal Systems) called for clarification from the administration and Congress in sorting out inconsistencies within the de facto body of national water policy.
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From page 14... ...
A carefully designed review process for Corps planning studies can increase credibility, improve scientific and technical applications, and help ensure planning studies of the highest quality. The Peer Review Committee report recommends the creation of an internal administrative group within the Corps to coordinate all reviews of Corps planning studies.
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From page 15... ...
The Peer Review Committee report recommends that results of a review should be presented to the Chief of Engineers well before a final decision is made on a planning study. Reports from review committees should be public documents and should appear in water resources project planning studies submitted to Congress.
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From page 16... ...
The Corps today finds itself in a setting in which it must pay increasing attention to shifting water project goals, possible operational changes, and the use of feedback and lessons from project outcomes. As the report from the Adaptive Management Committee points out, the concept of adaptive management gained attention during the late twentieth century as an approach that could help increase natural resources management flexibility and project and system benefits.
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From page 17... ...
The 216 Analytical Methods Committee report (NRC, 2004d) reviewed Corps planning procedures as embodied within the federal Principles and Guidelines for Water and Related Land Resources Implementation Studies ("Principles and Guidelines," or simply, P&G; WRC, 1983)
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From page 18... ...
This document, issued by the former federal Water Resources Council, has not been updated for over 20 years. Over this period there have been many changes and advances in planning and analytical techniques, such as valuation techniques, adaptive management, and shifting views of stakeholder participation.
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From page 19... ...
The River Basins and Coastal Systems Committee report concludes that the clear policy guidance and consistent funding and authority necessary to support integrated planning at the scale of river basins and coastal systems currently does not exist. The River Basins and Coastal Systems Committee report also finds that a lack of consistent national policy guidance, together with pressures to quickly develop water projects with well-defined local benefits, has hampered the Corps' ability to consistently plan water resources projects within a broader and integrated systems context.
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From page 20... ...
As noted above, the P&G has not been substantially revised for twenty years, and it is weighted toward benefit-cost analyses that are more appropriate for more traditional, single-purpose water resources projects than for complex, multi-objective water and ecosystem restoration projects. Planning guidance should be updated to provide more balanced and complete information on conducting integrated water systems planning within river basins and coastal systems.
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From page 21... ...
The Coordinating Committee report thus recommends that the Corps center its planning activities around a concept of "portfolio planning." The Coordinating Committee report notes that the term "portfolio" is used in Corps planning documents (and elsewhere) , and that its use in this setting entails the consideration of all Corps of Engineers assets in managing water and related resources.
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From page 22... ...
The Corps possesses authorities that allow it to conduct planning studies regarding project operations, for example. The two most commonly used continuing authorities are from the 1970 Flood Control Act and the 1986 Water Resources Development Act.
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From page 23... ...
This concept is treated in detail in the report from the Adaptive Management Committee, and also is captured in the Coordinating Committee's portfolio planning metaphor, which describes the broad suite of Corps of Engineers assets -- namely, physical infrastructure and the water and sediment resources controlled by that infrastructure. Few Corps of Engineers planning studies have attracted more attention than the agency's feasibility study for the Upper Mississippi River-Illinois Waterway.
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