Engineer Research and Development Center - Environmental Laboratory

Risk and Decision Science Team

Watershed Resilience

DESCRIPTION

Communities in a watershed face a variety of natural hazards and man-made threats that are difficult to predict and anticipate. The resilience capacity of each community to absorb, recover and adapt to these threats depend on a number of critical functions in the watershed. There is lack of region wide risk and resilience analysis to show the impacts in the interdependent infrastructure systems within a watershed. The US Army Corps of Engineers owns and operates critical infrastructure in most major watersheds in the U.S., there are opportunities to improve resilience decision making process within the watershed. This research focuses on the Savannah River Watershed and the USACE infrastructure located within the watershed, to develop replicable processess to identify and assess interdependent critical infrastructure within any watershed. The effort will also enable participants to achieve the level of resilience they desire in their community and establish an enduring culture of resilience.


Problem

Communities in a watershed face a variety of natural hazards and man-made threats that are difficult to predict and anticipate. The resilience capacity of each community to absorb, recover and adapt to these threats depend on a number of critical functions in the watershed. There is lack of region wide risk and resilience analysis to show the impacts in the interdependent infrastructure systems within a watershed.

Table titled Resilience Matrix. The left side rows are labeled Physical, Information, and Social. The columns are headed Absorb, Recover, and Adapt. Physical/Absorm reads: Redundancy, Robustness, Reliability. Physical/Recover reads: Recovery Time, Recovery Target. Physical Adapt reads: Modularity. Information/Absorb reads: Failure detection systems, Risk Assessments, Mitigation Planning. Information/Recover reads: Recovery tracking data, Models for recovery scenarios, Recovery Planning. Information/Adapt reads: Post-disaster data collection, Adaptation Planning. Social/Absorb reads: Emergency Staffing, Emergency Planning, Emergency Support Agreements. Social/Recover reads: Community Recovery Assistance, Contractor Agreements, Recovery Agreements. Social/Adapt reads: Training Exercises, Community Education, Community Communication.

Photo off of a road/walkway edged by a railing that cuts through the bottom right of the image. To the left is a watershed with ample plant growth, beyond this is a line of tall trees beneath a clear blue sky.

Solution

The US Army Corps of Engineers owns and operates critical infrastructure in most major watersheds in the U.S., there are opportunities to improve resilience decision making process within the watershed.


Impact

This research focuses on the Savannah River Watershed and the USACE infrastructure located within the watershed, to develop replicable processess to identify and assess interdependent critical infrastructure within any watershed. The effort will also enable participants to achieve the level of resilience they desire in their community and establish an enduring culture of resilience.