ALEXANDRIA, VA – October 7, 2011. 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.
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