Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2009VA133S

Modernizing U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Planning and Regulatory Policies and Programs, Phase III

Institute: Virginia
USGS Grant Number: G09AP00149
Year Established: 2009 Start Date: 2002-03-01 End Date: 2011-03-31
Total Federal Funds: $0 Total Non-Federal Funds: Not available

Principal Investigators: Stephen H. Schoenholtz, Stephen H. Schoenholtz

Project Summary: The work proposed in this scope expands upon prior research efforts to include an examination of Corps planning/decision support programs and policies and to explore opportunities for enabling the Corps to improve how it analyzes prospective water supply permits.

For this work effort, contractor will
1. Develop a white paper on the concepts, principles, and approaches for addressing uncertainty, in the context of decision-making, within the life-cycle of a Corps project;
2. Propose and develop an outline for a new planning approach with detailed procedures. This will require drawing on the ongoing risk work, scenario-based planning, IWRM, climate change, shared vision planning, systems work 404 permitting work, etc. that is already underway at IWR;
3. Prepare two white papers as follows.
One with three parts:
a. an alternative approach to permit analysis and review for water supply projects under the Clean Water Act 404 program;
b. application of a Shared Vision Planning approach to the Corps regulatory program;
c. a strategy for moving forward.
A second white paper is to examine the increased scope of considerations being imposed on the Section 404 program, the limits, and the implications.