ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA - August 14, 2012. The Civil Works Regional Economic System (RECONS) economic impact modeling tool is now certified. USACE IWR developed the tool to provide accurate and defendable estimates of regional economic impacts associated with USACE spending. It can be utilized to track progress and justify continued operation, maintenance and construction work performed by the Corps. RECONS is the only USACE certified Regional Economic Development (RED) model for agency wide use.
The RECONS model development was funded under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Extensive technical and usability reviews of the model were accomplished by an independent external review team. The certification is based on the decision of the USACE Headquarters Model Certification Panel and reflects version RECONS 1.0. It meets the certification criteria contained in EC 1105-2-412.
RECONS automates calculations and generates estimates of jobs and other economic measures such as income and sales associated with USACE’s ARRA spending and annual Civil Work program spending (as well as stemming from effects of additional economic activities such as water transportation and tourism spending) that is associated with USACE’s core programs.
RECONS provides users with convenient access to 1500 different economic impact models that were specifically built for USACE’s project locations. RECONS also provides users a conveniently efficient way to navigate, recall and adjust any of the 1500 models. The different RECONS components (e.g., multipliers, margins, spending profiles) can be easily updated on a regular basis. Additional models can also be added to accommodate new project locations, functions or changes in the USACE business lines and work activities.
RECONS was designed to:
- provide a more convenient and consistent way to conduct economic impact analyses including the effects of either increased and decreased expenditures by the USACE (e.g., Civil Works spending by projects, business lines)
- enable users to conduct valid and reliable economic impact analyses without having the degree of knowledge or experience of Input-Output analysis required by IMPLAN or other comprehensive I-O models
- enable users to simultaneously estimate economic impacts at different geographic scopes (e.g., local, state, national) and to aggregate impacts across projects, districts and divisions
- increase rigor and consistency (e.g., spending profiles, identification of impact areas) in the manner in which economic impact analyses are conducted by the USACE.
RECONS is an agency wide web-based tool that can be accessed by multiple authorized users from any machine with Internet access. It’s currently available to all USACE employees and contractors with USACE credentials. Please contact Dr. Wen Chang at wen-huei.chang@usace.army.mil for questions regarding access to RECONS.
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