VICKSBURG, Miss. ⸺ The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will hold a virtual international launch event with its partners on Sept. 16 at 10 a.m. CDT, to celebrate release of the seminal publication, International Guidelines on Natural and Nature-Based Features (NNBF) for Flood Risk Management.
The new guidelines will inform strategies to reduce flood risk and improve resilience of coastal and inland water systems.
The event will include comments from Lt. Gen. Scott A. Spellmon, 55th Chief of Engineers and Commanding General, USACE, as well as other senior leaders from a range of U.S. and overseas organizations.
“We are looking forward to sharing these guidelines with the public,” said Dr. Todd Bridges, USACE lead for the effort. “Interest and experience using natural infrastructure as a part of flood risk management is growing in significant ways around the world. The guidelines are a way of sharing that information, experience and learning to support future practice.”
As a part of the Engineering With Nature approach, NNBF refers to landscape features in coastal and riverine settings like beaches, dunes, wetlands, among others — either natural or nature-based —that can support flood risk management and other benefits. Natural features are those created by nature; nature-based features are engineered by people to mimic natural conditions. NNBF projects provide multi-purpose functions related to flood and storm damage reduction and ecosystem restoration, while delivering other economic/engineering, social and environmental benefits.
The USACE led a team of 77 cross-sector organizations over the course of five years to create the guidelines. Authors and contributors established a common approach for organizing the guidelines, sharing and coordinating information, and integrating the chapters into the 1,017-page document.
“The publication is intended to inform and guide practitioners, organizations and communities seeking to enhance the performance of flood-risk management systems and achieve long-term risk mitigation,” Bridges said. “The approaches in The NNBF guidelines can be used to increase the value produced by flood-risk management infrastructure investments; increase water infrastructure resilience and sustainability; and reduce infrastructure maintenance and repair costs.”
The public is invited to visit the event webpage on the EWN website: https://ewn.erdc.dren.mil/?page_id=4351, which features more information about the event and links for downloading the publication, along with its accompanying 69-page executive summary, after the book launch event has concluded.
ERDC will stream the launch event live on LinkedIn on https://www.linkedin.com/company/armyerdc/ and YouTube at https://youtu.be/sX5SjBjxits.