ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has released new guidance on how to incorporate climate change information in hydrologic analyses in accordance with the USACE overarching climate change adaptation policy. USACE policy requires consideration of climate change in all current and future studies to reduce vulnerabilities and enhance the resilience of our water-resource infrastructure.
The Engineering and Construction Bulletin (ECB) 2014-10 (pdf, 195 KB), issued 2 May 2014 and expiring 2 May 2016, outlines concepts and goals, provides guidance and provides an example to support incorporation of new science and engineering products and other relevant information about specific climate change and associated impacts in hydrologic analyses for new and existing USACE projects.
The bulletin establishes a procedure to perform a qualitative analysis of potential climate threats and impacts to USACE hydrology-related projects and operations. The method consists of a two phase process that first conducts an initial screening-level qualitative analysis to identify whether climate change is relevant to the project goals or design. If climate change is relevant to the project goals or designs, the second phase requires an evaluation of information gathered about impacts to the important hydrologic variables and the underlying physical processes such as changes in processes governing rainfall runoff or snowmelt. The information should be used to help identify opportunities to reduce potential vulnerabilities and increase resilience as a part of the project's authorized operations and also identify any caveats or particular issues associated with the data. The information gathered in the second phase can be included either in risk registers or separately in a manner consistent with risk characterization in planning and design studies, depending on the project phase.
The guidance applies to all Civil Works applies to all hydrologic analyses supporting planning and engineering decisions having an extended decision time frame, except for operational hydrologic studies for water management or to dam safety. Changes other than climate threats that affect inland hydrology will continue to be evaluated in the manner described in current USACE guidance.
The ECB was issued by Mr. James Dalton, Chief of the HQUSACE Engineering & Construction Community of Practice and was prepared under the direction of Mr. Jerry Webb, leader of the Hydrologic, Hydraulic & Coastal Engineering Community of Practice. The authors of the bulletin included Dr. David Raff (formerly of USACE IWR, now with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation), and Dr. Kate White and Dr. Jeff Arnold of USACE IWR.