ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. Representatives from the Japan Institute of Country-ology and Engineering (JICE) visited the Alexandria office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Institute for Water Resources (IWR) on October 30th to learn how USACE applies benefit and cost analyses during project development. The Japanese government is investigating different methods for justifying new water resources projects and validating the benefits of existing projects through a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. JICE has completed similar investigative visits to the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Team members from IWR, JICE and CTI Engineering attended the meeting at IWR headquarters. IWR team members presented on a variety of topics during the visit. The presentation topics included planning by Kevin Knight, IWR; economics by Brian Harper, IWR; project visualization using the Water Infrastructure Systems Data Manager by Joel Schlagel, IWR; public participation and collaborative decision-making by Hal Cardwell, IWR Conflict Resolution and Public Participation Center and Directory of Expertise; and hydrologic and hydraulic modeling by Chris Dunn, IWR Hydrologic Engineering Center.
In addition to presenters Knight, Harper, Schlagel, Cardwell, and Dunn, IWR team members Joe Manous and International Center for Integrated Water Resources Management Deputy Director, Dr. Will Logan attended. Research engineer Masato Okabe and team leader and senior chief research engineer Yanagisawa Osamu from the JICE Water Resources Policy Group attended. Junko Sagara, Deputy Manager of the CTI Engineering Water Management and Research Division, attended as well.
More about the Japan Institute of Country-ology and Engineering (JICE)
The Japan Institute of Country-ology and Engineering was established in 1973 in order to protect and improve Japan’s national infrastructure. JICE aims to conduct comprehensive, effective R&D on new construction technologies that will support the growth of construction engineering in Japan and meet the needs of the Japanese government and society, and to improve construction engineering by utilizing and diffusing new construction technologies, thereby contributing to the improvement of public welfare.