Japanese Delegation Visits USACE Teams
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Left to right: Joe Manous, Koichi Uno, Bob Pietrowsky, Katsumi Wakigawa, Tomoyuki Okada, Masamichi Hayashi, Katsuhito Miyake.
Clockwise, from left: Koichi Uno, Katsumi Wakigawa, Masamichi Hayashi, Tomoyuki Okada, Bob Pietrowsky, Katsuhito Miyake.
ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA - February 15, 2012. Members of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT) and Japanese Institute of Construction Engineering (JICE) met with USACE teams February 6-11, 2012.
They met with USACE Headquarters and Institute for Water Resources (IWR) team members in Washington, D.C., and IWR’s Hydrologic Engineering Center (IWR-HEC) and Sacramento District team members in California. The visit’s purpose was to research a document being developed through the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to serve as a guide for developing countries seeking to implement and improve floodplain regulation frameworks.
The first part of the visit was a two-day session at IWR-HEC and Sacramento District. The IWR-HEC team presented information about hydraulic and hydrological studies, levee certification, and USACE planning and engineering. The Sacramento District team led a discussion about the Sacramento River and Natomas Basin flood risk management work. They also conducted a field visit of levees and recent construction.
The remaining days were spent in Washington D.C. with members of USACE Headquarters and IWR where briefings were provided on the USACE planning process, principles and guidelines revision, benefit-cost analysis, and National Flood Risk Management and Silver Jackets programs. David Bascom, FEMA, discussed the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), and Dr. Gerry Galloway, former IWR Maass-White visiting scholar, led a tour of the Washington levee.
Visiting USACE were Mr. Masamichi Hayashi of MLIT; Dr. Katsumi Wakigawa and Mr. Koichi Uno of JICE; and Mr. Tomoyuki Okada, an employee of MLIT detailed to the World Meteorological Organization. Ms. Miyake Katsuhito served as interpreter.
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USACE IWR Begins Port and Inland Waterways Modernization Study
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The Container Ship, Regina Maersk, pushed through the Charleston Harbor, Charleston, South Carolina.
ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA - February 2, 2012. USACE Headquarters (HQ) and the Institute for Water Resources (IWR) have begun work to develop a strategy for U.S. port and inland waterways modernization. The Panama Canal expansion that is currently underway will almost triple the size of container vessels able to transit the canal, which will affect trade to the U.S., especially along the east and Gulf coasts.
Upon the enactment of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012 on December 23rd 2011, USACE HQ began working with IWR on the scoping of the U.S. Port and Inland Waterways Modernization Strategy. The strategy will explore the impacts of the Panama Canal expansion to accommodate larger “post-Panamax” ships on future marine transportation system needs. The strategy development process will incorporate the perspectives of shippers, carriers, ports, environmental interests, state and Federal agencies, and other interested parties. Because of the six-month timeframe directed by Congress, the study will rely heavily on existing data, reports, and studies as well as leveraging other ongoing assessment studies.
The study will survey existing conditions, review the drivers of and uncertainties surrounding the future demand for international trade; forecast the macro makeup of the future ocean fleet; evaluate the regional environmental footprints of navigation modernization, and address elements of benefits estimation and implication of modernization costs to the USACE Civil Works budget and for Federal investment more generally. The study will also review future options for financing and considerations of modernization within the context of the Nation’s overall intermodal transportation system. Although the strategy will articulate options for potential Congressional actions for modernization, its focus will remain at a strategic level and will not identify specific project priorities for ports or waterways.
Because of the broad stakeholder interest in the strategy, IWR is conducting the investigation and communicating the findings in a transparent and accessible manner. IWR aims to leverage outreach activities already conducted and currently planned under the Department of Transportation's ongoing Panama Canal Expansion Study.
IWR has posted information about this U.S. Port and Inland Waterways Modernization Strategy on its website. As the study progresses, this website will include study updates, report outlines, and draft report sections. Peer-to-peer feedback is welcome. The study team will be accepting information and feedback through April 15 for consideration in initial drafts of the study document, followed by reviews of the work by the Executive Branch, and ultimately transmittal to the Committees in June 2012. The study team is headed by Technical Director Keith Hofseth, Study Manager Kevin Knight, and Communications and Public Engagement Lead Hal Cardwell, all of IWR.
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