A USACE delegation led by Ms. Jo-Ellen Darcy met in The Hague on 11 Nov to discuss progress in technical exchanges and collaboration under a MoA between the Dutch Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) and USACE. This annual Steering Cmte meeting was co-chaired by Ms. Darcy and Jan Hendrik Dronkers, RWS Director General. The meeting recognized ten years of formal MoA collaboration and included presentations by James Dalton (HQs) on Civil Works Transformation, Bob Pietrowsky (IWR) on U.S. Water Resources in the Federal Government, and Mark Sudol (IWR) on use of USACE’s WISDM tool by the RWS. The meeting concluded with a review of the eleven program areas of on-going collaboration between members of USACE and RWS.
The trip was highlighted by the publication of a comparative history of the two organizations, “Two Centuries of Experience in Water Resources Management: A Dutch-US Retrospective”, which was publicly released during a seminar held in Delft. Featured presenters included John Lonnquest (USACE Office of History) who, as lead editor, discussed the history book and Bob Pietrowsky who presented on New Directions in Water Resources Planning and Management. Copies of the book are available for free digital download below.
The results of this ten year collaboration have been substantial to include technical support and information exchanges on a range of topics related to flood risk reduction, levee safety, resilience, knowledge management, and sustainment of our large and aging water resources infrastructures.