OMB-Approved Planning and Operations Public Surveys

These surveys are a catalog of questionnaires currently approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that are managed by IWR to provide a framework for creating and conducting water resource surveys.

NO SURVEY MAY BE CONDUCTED UNTIL FINAL APPROVAL IS RECEIVED FROM OMB. READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS BELOW FOR APPROVAL PROCEDURES.

Choosing an OMB Approved Survey

All survey material is categorized by topic. All new uses of a survey must be approved. Instructions for submittal are provided below.

All OMB-approved surveys forms are presented in Word documents and can be viewed, printed, and modified in MS Word®. Please mail, E-mail, or fax any questions CECW-IWR-R, 7701 Telegraph Road, Alexandria, Virginia 22315-3868, telephone: 703/428-7086, fax:703/428-8171, and e-mail.

Choose a survey.

Seeking Approval to Use an OMB Approved Survey

There is a ten business-day approval process where survey packages are submitted through the Corps MSC Offices to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, OMB, and the Headquarters Information Management Office.

Specific approval must be gained for each use of a survey, even if the questionnaire materials remain unchanged. No survey may be conducted until final approval is received from OMB.

Approval submittals must include: the survey instruments, with reference to which approved generic survey(s) the instruments are taken from or adapted, a discussion of the research questions to be answered by the survey, the sampling strategy to be employed in the survey, the collection procedures to be employed, follow-up procedures, the data analysis plan, and a discussion of the consistency of the questions with OMB-approved questions.

Requests to OMB may only be submitted by the designated MSC (or HQUSACE) points of contacts listed here. Division Commanders are responsible for assuring quality control and policy compliance prior to submitting requests to OMB.

Privacy  and Personally Identifiable Information

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is very serious about guarding the privacy of the public, whether it is individuals, businesses, or organizations. There is generally no need to collect or maintain any personally identifiable information. However, if there is a requirement to collect such information, the public should know that the Corps is committed to safeguarding that information and destroying it when it is no longer required. Potential respondents should also be informed that their participation is completely voluntary and they are free to withhold their response to any questions. Details about Privacy and Personally Identifiable Information.

Approval Procedures

When using these questionnaires to develop specific survey applications, you must follow the guidance in the Terms of Clearance (pdf, 8 KB) and ER 1165-2-503. Please review these documents before conducting any survey.

All requests for approval should be sent to these six contacts. Click here to initiate an email message to all of the following:

• IWR POC
• HQ PLG POC
• HQ OPS POC
• HQ CI POC
• DOD POC
• OMB POC

OMB’s “Guidance on Agency Survey and Statistical Information Collections” (pdf, 817 KB) (Office of Management and Budget (2006) provides extensive coverage of survey research methods and policy.  Practitioners should be fully familiar with the contents of this document prior to embarking on a data collection effort.

Further assistance in survey research development, administration, and analysis is available by contacting the Corps Labs and Planning Centers of Expertise below:

• For Planning Surveys:  IWR POC 703-428-7086
• For Operations Surveys:  ERDC OPS POC 601-634-2105

All surveys of Customer Satisfaction Surveys of Corps of Engineer Project Sponsors are conducted under the Corps of Engineers Customer Survey.

• For Information on the Corps of Engineers Customer Survey Contact:  USACE CSS POC 251-694-3848

Links to Federal Laws, Directives and Guidance