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IWR Publishes Workshop Proceedings on Tolerable Risk Guidelines

Published Jan. 21, 2011
Proceedings of Exploration of Tolerable Risk Guidelines for the USACE Levee Safety Program
Proceedings of Exploration of Tolerable Risk Guidelines for the USACE Levee Safety Program (pdf, 6.09 MB)

ALEXANDRIA, VA—January 21, 2011. IWR has published the proceedings of the workshop Exploration of Tolerable Risk Guidelines for the USACE Levee Safety Program, which was held in Washington, DC, on March 17-18, 2010. The proceedings feature summaries of introductory presentations and synopses of discussions that took place during break‐out sessions. Read‐ahead materials, presentation slides, and follow‐up actions and tasks are also included in the proceedings.

The event provided the Corps Levee Safety Program with the opportunity to engage the wider levee safety and flood risk management community in developing tolerable risk guidelines and methods to improve management of risks associated with levee systems. The purpose of this workshop was to examine the concepts and principles of tolerability of risk and tolerable risk guidelines, and explore their application to and use in managing the risks associated with levee systems. National and international perspectives were shared, and participants represented numerous Federal agencies, professional societies, nongovernmental organizations and international partners.

More about the USACE Levee Safety Program

The levee safety program mission is to work with others to assess, communicate, and manage the risks to people, property, and the environment from inundation that may result from breach, overtopping, or malfunction of components of levee systems. With the formation of the USACE Levee Safety Program in 2007, USACE proposes to integrate the inspection and risk assessment requirements within a risk-informed process that emphasizes life safety. Included is a national-level portfolio risk management process using risk-informed decision making to manage risk. The intention is that risk assessment and prioritization of risk management actions would be centrally managed by HQUSACE while levee safety risk management measures would be locally executed. These actions would be consistent with recommendations by the National Committee on Levee Safety (NCLS draft 2009).

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