Us Army Corps of Engineers North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study (PAP014376)

Código

PAP014376

Autores

Roselle E. Henn, J. R. Vietri, A. Guise

Tema

Flood resilient societies through community preparedness

Resumo

The United States is experiencing a trend toward increased frequency, high magnitude storm events such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and storms of large areal extent creating larger damage areas as evidenced by the size of Hurricane Irene in 2011and Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Given the reality of sea level rise as a probable future condition, the Disaster Relief Appropriation Act of 2013 (P.L. 113-2) recognized the need to comprehensively evaluate the existing and planned measures to reduce the flooding risk from tidally-influenced storm surges as well as other alternatives for areas at risk to future storm damages. The legislation directed the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to undertake a Comprehensive Study of the Sandy impacted areas in the North Atlantic Division (Maine to Virginia) to be conducted in coordination with other Federal agencies, and State, Local, and Tribal officials to ensure consistency with other recovery plans being developed. The goals of the North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study are to (1) provide risk reduction strategies to reduce risk to which vulnerable coastal populations are subject, and (2) support coastal resilient communities and sustainable coastal landscape systems, considering future sea level rise and climate change scenarios, to reduce risk to vulnerable population, property, ecosystems, and infrastructure. The Comprehensive Study will include a coastal framework as well as storm suite modeling, coastal GIS analysis, and related evaluations, for the affected coastlines. The study will identify existing nature systems and nature-based features, such as ecosystem restoration projects, and describe their contribution to regional resiliency during Hurricane Sandy. Methodologies for evaluating the resiliency benefits that nature-based features may contribute in conjunction with other types of risk reduction measures (structural and non-structures) are being advanced as part of the Study. The Comprehensive Study is being developed by a USACE enterprise team working collaboratively with subject matter experts from other Federal Agencies, Regional Partners, Academia, and Non-Governmental Organizations. This team is being led by the USACE Coastal Storm Damage Reduction Planning Center of Expertise and the USACE Team members are coastal scientists, planners and engineers drawn from North Atlantic Division districts, the National Coastal Working Group, the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center, and the USACE Institute for Water Resources, incorporating other USACE resources and expertise as appropriate. This paper will describe the current status of the Comprehensive Study, ongoing collaborations, technical products, and way ahead leading to the January 2015 submission to Congress.