Description

1) Impacts of Watershed Specific Release Rates on Disproportionately Impacted Communities in the Greater Chicago area
Nikhil Sangwan, CFM, ISWS, sangwannikhil@gmail.com
Co-presenters: None

Abstract: Marginalized communities are often disproportionally impacted by floods, and this inequity in flood risks is likely to increase even further without proper management. Identification and determination of the inequities in existing flood management policies and regulations is key to devising more equitable action plans. The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) recently implemented watershed-specific release rates to attenuate peak runoff rates with volume control and detention basin requirements. This study evaluates the relative impacts of these release rates on marginalized communities/disproportionately impacted areas (DIA) in terms of detention storage requirements and flood risk mitigation. Existing hydrologic and hydraulic models were modified to simulate current and future development scenarios; detention storage requirements and flood mitigation levels were then extracted from these models and analyzed. An improved understanding of the impact of release rates on DIAs enable policy makers and watershed managers to better evaluate whether policies address prevalent inequities in flood risk. This presentation will provide information about the relative impacts of watershed-specific release rate regulations on the marginalized and disproportionately impacted communities in Cook County, Illinois.

2) Opportunities of the NRCS Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations Program
Matt Pillard, AICP, HDR, Inc., matt.pillard@hdrinc.com
Co-presenters: Ashley Knudson, ashley.knudson@hdrinc.com

Abstract: Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), under the authority of Public Law 83-566 and 78-534, provides watershed planning, design, and construction services under the Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations (WFPO) program. Through the WFPO program, the NRCS cooperates with local sponsors to identify watershed problems and opportunities that fit into the eight identified project purposes. The NRCS provides financial and technical assistance for planning, design, and construction. The NRCS assistance limits and sponsor requirements will be presented. The various project purposes will be explained and examples of the types of watershed issues that apply to those purposes. The NRCS guidance (National Watershed Program Handbook and Manual), will be explored in relation to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), National Economic Development (NED) account, and Section 404 of the Clean Water Act requirements. This session will provide an overview of the WFPO planning process, through the completion of a Watershed Plan and Environmental Document (Plan-ED), using a case study of the WFPO planning process. The case study is the Spring and Buffalo Creeks watershed. The Spring and Buffalo Creeks watershed is located in Central Nebraska in Custer and Dawson Counties, near Lexington. The watersheds are being studied as two separate project areas within the same Plan-EA. The Spring and Buffalo Creeks watershed has experienced numerous historic and recent flooding events that caused substantial damage in the watershed. Major and minor flood events over the decades have caused substantial economic loss. This case study will demonstrate the environmental analysis and hydraulic and hydrology modeling efforts needed to support the project need, the alternatives analysis, and ultimately the economic benefits that would be realized (and demonstrated in the economic analysis) from alternative implementation.

3) Adaptive Optimisation: Making robust decisions in the face of uncertainty
Richard Crowder, Jacobs, richard.crowder@jacobs.com
Co-presenters: Dr Joe Clarke MCIWEM C.WEM, joe.clarke@jacobs.com

Abstract: The Oxford-Cambridge Arc (OxCam), in the south of England, is home to 3.7 million people and supports 2 million jobs. It has been identified as an important area of economic growth for the UK, with up to one million new homes expected over the next 30 years, alongside major infrastructure investment. However, there is great uncertainty in the effect of climate change and the shape and scale of development, creating a challenge in understanding how best to investment in flood resilience. The OxCam Flood Risk Investment Study sought to understand the ‘optimum’ level and timing of investment in the flood protection elements of flood resilience across three major catchments, but crucially doing so in a way that is mindful of future uncertainty and adaptive to different future scenarios. We used Flood Platform, Jacobs’ high throughput cluster computing and model data management platform, to automate the process of building 700 flood models and running 45,000 simulations, which fed into a comprehensive impact analysis. Using an innovative “simulation library” of outputs and novel code to interrogate it, we were able to represent 27 possible future scenarios spanning a range of possible climate change and development scenarios, along with billions of combinations of flood risk interventions. We developed a first-of-its-kind “adaptive optimisation”, which explored a highly complex decision tree of billions of possible investment paths to identify investment decisions that are robust across futures and identify where and when to invest. This presentation will outline the project background, technical appproach and findings, and will explore the transferrable lessons learned about how adaptive planning and technology and data-driven optimisation can be brought together to understand future risk and investment.