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News Archives - 2011IWR Climate and Global Change Teams Publish Article in livebetter eMagazine Burlington, ND – Col. Michael Price, commander of USACE St. Paul District (left); Mark Koenig, USACE St. Paul District, emergency operations manager; and Mike Raasakka, North Dakota Game and Fish, tour flooded areas in Burlington on June 30. USACE photo by Patrick Moes, Public Affairs Specialist, St. Louis District.  Vicksburg, MS – The Old Train Depot at the river front in Vicksburg had the first floor partially submerged as the flood waters travelled passed in May 2011. USACE photo by Patrick Moes, Public Affairs Specialist, St. Louis District. "Adapting to Climate and Global Change" has been published in the October 2011 edition of livebetter eMagazine. The authors are Kate White, Ph.D., P.E., Senior Lead for Global and Climate Change, and Jeff Arnold, Ph.D., Senior Climate Scientist, both of USACE IWR. The article presents the USACE position on Climate Change Adaptation, how it affects planning and operations, and why it's important to public health and safety. In "Adapting to Climate and Global Change" the authors discuss the challenges of a changing climate in context with other national and global challenges that have the potential to affect missions and operations carried out by USACE. They talk about water resources infrastructure both as an investment that supports public safety and economic growth and as a tool designed to help manage extreme hydrologic effects. The authors discuss how USACE plans to continue adapting its projects and programs within current authorizations to enhance their resilience against potential climate threats to its missions and objectives. The "USACE Climate Change Adaptation Plan and Report 2011," released in June 2011 (pdf, 7.98 MB) and revised September 2011 (pdf, 1.99 MB) , is discussed as well as the national and international collaborations USACE pursues to increase its knowledge base about best practices in studying climate change and how to mitigate climate change effects. They also highlight USACE 2012 priorities regarding its work to mainstream climate change adaptation and mitigation. The article features quotes by Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, who signed the "Climate Change Adaptation Plan and Report 2011," and by USACE Civil Works Program Director Steven Stockton. You can learn more about how USACE is studying climate variability and methods to adapt its operations and missions throughout this website. Learn More
Climate and Global Change Teams Welcome Dr. Raff Dr. David Raff
USACE IWR is pleased to have David Raff, PhD, PE joining the USACE climate and global change teams. Dr. Raff joins USACE from the Department of Interior Bureau of Reclamation where he worked for the past eight and a half years. David had relocated to Delaware and USACE had a hydrologic engineer position opening at an opportune time. While at Reclamation, Dr. Raff served as Technical Specialist for the Flood Hydrology and Emergency Management group. Most recently he was the programmatic lead for the Basin Study Program — the major implementation component of the authorities contained within Public Law 111-11 Section 9503 (SECURE Water Act). This program is primarily focused on developing the tools, information (including the impacts of the changing climate) and adaptation options to reduce current and future water supply and demand imbalances. Most notably Dr. Raff orchestrated the development of the report to congress, completed in April 2011, under the authorities of the SECURE Water Act. (pdf, 3.50 MB) Dr. Raff is a licensed Professional Engineer with a somewhat varied academic background. He received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University, and an MS in Rangeland Ecology and PhD in Civil Engineering both from Colorado State University. Dr. Raff has been involved with research and implementation policy on flood risk estimation, climate change adaptation, as well as water supply predictability. He has been engaged with the USACE climate community for the past few years including co-authoring USGS Circular 1331 with Rolf Olsen and Kate White amongst authors from Reclamation, USGS, and NOAA. Additionally Dr. Raff served on the Expert Opinion Elicitation Panel assessing impacts of increasing flood flows on the Fargo, ND - Moorhead, MN flood risk management project. The USACE climate and global change teams anticipate that immediate opportunities exist for Dr. Raff's background and expertise to work in support of the climate change community at USACE. In addition to the climate work, Dr. Raff's capabilities will extend IWR support of Hydrology and Hydraulics Community of Practice in Engineering and Construction in areas such as flood risk estimation, water control, and assessments of infrastructure safety and reliability. Learn More
Climate Change Adaptation Plan Submitted to President's Council on Environmental Quality
Locations of USACE Projects in the US (Click for a Larger View)
On June 3, 2011, Ms. Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, submitted the USACE Climate Change Adaptation Plan and Report 2011 (pdf, 7.8 MB) to the Executive Office of the President's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The report was a response to the CEQ's Implementing Instructions for Federal Agency Climate Change Adaptation, issued on March 4, 2011. IWR's Kate White, PhD, PE and Jeff Arnold, PhD were leading authors on the report. The report outlines 21st Century challenges arising from climate change, guiding questions for high-level vulnerability assessment, and USACE climate change adaptation planning and implementation strategies. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recognizes the very significant differences between climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation in terms of physical complexity, fiscal and material resources, level of knowledge and technical readiness, and temporal and geographic scale. Because of these differences, understanding and implementing climate adaptation policies and measures requires very different knowledge, skills, and abilities than implementing mitigation measures. As a result, the Chief, Engineering & Construction will serve as the head of the agency's Adaptation Steering Committee. In mainstreaming adaptation, the USACE goal is to develop practical, nationally consistent, legally justifiable, and cost effective measures, both structural and nonstructural, to reduce vulnerabilities and improve the resilience of our water resources infrastructure impacted by climate change and other global changes. "We believe that all of these activities will help us to identify changes, whether singly or in combination, that will impact water resources infrastructure performance and reliability, so we can proactively take action to reduce our risks and adverse consequences," said Steve Stockton, Director of the USACE Civil Works program. "Many of the lessons learned in adapting to climate change leave us in a better position to act effectively in the face of other global changes." The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers oversees and administers public water resources and associated infrastructure in every state, as well as several international river basins. It is the largest and oldest Federal water resources management and military support agency in the nation. Learn More:
revised 9 January 2012
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