16 Feb 2023

Estimating Present Value Cost of Invasive Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis) on USACE Project Lands

PURPOSE: The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is responsible for stewardship of approximately 12.5 million acres across the United States. USACE’s Environmental Stewardship program mission is to protect, preserve, and restore significant ecological resources on USACE project lands. Since the early 2000s, non-native and invasive Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) has killed hundreds of millions of ash trees in the US, becoming the most destructive and costly invasive forest insect in North America. This research effort estimates the cost of managing EAB damage to USACE projects including treatment, removal, or removal and replacement of dying/dead ash trees. The results suggest potential impact to more than 122,800 USACE project acres in currently infested counties including 181,000 ash trees. While not all damaged trees require removal, many USACE recreation sites have ash trees that pose an increased risk to humans and structures thus requiring removal of EAB infected trees. The widespread and pervasive impacts of EAB will have significant costs associated with removal and replacement of ash trees that could be hazardous to recreational users at the projects. Data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) database, and methods developed by Kovacs et al. (2010) were utilized to calculate yearly present value costs of EAB to USACE projects from 2006-2026. Overall EAB impacts are estimated at $121.6 million across 201 USACE projects evaluated in this study. Increased efforts to limit EAB spread and perform measures of control are warranted to reduce potential cost to USACE.

7 Feb 2023

Remote Sensing Tools to Support Ordinary High Water Mark Delineation

Abstract: This document is a technical note (TN) that describes existing and recently developed tools to support ordinary high water mark (OHWM) identification and delineation. It also presents a case study to demonstrate how utilizing the tools provide supporting lines of evidence in OHWM delineations.

24 Jan 2023

Swan Island Resilience Model Development; Phase I: Conceptual Model

Abstract: This report documents the development of an integrated hydrodynamic and ecological model to test assumptions about island resilience. Swan Island, a 25-acre island in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, was used as a case study. An interagency, interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers came together in a series of workshops to develop a simplified resilience model to examine the ability of islands to reduce waves and erosion and the impacts to nearby habitats and shorelines. This report describes the model development process and the results from this first key step: model conceptualization. The final conceptual model identifies four main components: vegetative biomass, island elevation, waves/currents, and sediment supply. These components interact to form and support specific habitat types occurring on the island: coastal dunes, high marsh, low marsh, and submerged aquatic vegetation. The pre-and post-construction field data, coupled with hydrodynamic ecological models, will provide predictive capabilities of island resilience and evaluations of accrued benefits for future island creation and restoration projects. The process and methods described can be applied to island projects in a variety of regions and geographic scales.

10 Jan 2023

Strength and Toughness Inputs to Fitness for Service Analysis of Existing Hydraulic Steel Structures

Abstract: The purpose of this effort is to describe a database containing information about the strength and toughness of steel used in existing hydraulic steel structures (HSS). The lack of information about these properties often presents a barrier to conducting fitness for service (FFS) analysis. The statistical dependence between strength and toughness variables and other database fields is evaluated to assess their potential as predictive variables.

9 Dec 2022

Demonstration of an Autonomous Sailing Vessel for Monitoring Nearshore and Offshore Marine Environments

Abstract: This technical note describes the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) application of an autonomous sailing vessel (ASV) to monitor water quality near underwater unexploded ordnance in Vieques, Puerto Rico, and the Center for Acoustics Research and Education, University of New Hampshire, application of the ASV to monitor the ocean soundscape along the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf.

9 Dec 2022

Invasive Species Costs to the USACE Navigation Business Line: A Demonstration Analysis in the Chicago District

Abstract: Executive Order 13112 requires federal agencies to report invasive species costs to the National Invasive Species Counsel (NISC) annually. NISC then reports to Congress to increase awareness of invasive species and encourage inter-agency cooperation. Since 2005, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has provided an annual estimate for the Civil Works (CW) business lines. Traditionally, USACE estimates have been informed by broad assumptions, as many invasive species costs are not itemized. This study sought to develop a method to improve these estimates. A demonstration analysis was conducted for the Chicago District Navigation Business Line and was used to inform recommendations for a nation-wide analysis. The demonstration revealed invasive species-related costs represent about 0.2% ($64,000) of the district’s Navigation Business Line. Invasive species costs are subject to many variables, such as the type, prevalence, and impact of invasive species, as well as the number and type of navigation projects. The Chicago District results are not presumed to be indicative of other districts’ invasive species costs. Rather, the demonstration informed the development of an invasive species cost estimating method that can adapted for each CW business line, as well as variations in invasive species and projects across geographic regions. This report describes the demonstration analysis and presents a defensible framework for quantifying the costs of invasive species to the USACE CW program.

6 Oct 2022

Incorporating Social and Environmental Outputs in Decision-Making: Workshop Outcomes

PURPOSE: This document summarizes the notable outcomes of the workshop “Quantifying and Incorporating Social and Environmental Outputs in Decision-Making—Research and Development Needs and Strategy Workshop.” The workshop was held 24 and 25 July 2019 in Alexandria, Virginia, at the US Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Institute for Water Resources (IWR). The workshop sought to identify gaps in knowledge, methods, data, and tools and to identify types of subject matter experts who would be needed for the research team. A total of 22 participants attended the facilitated workshop, representing a broad array of expertise: economists, scientists, planners, social scientists, project managers, and researchers from a number of USACE organizations and partnering academics across the United States. Together, these attendees reviewed existing policy and research and prioritized future work to fill gaps in methods and procedures for incorporating social and environmental inputs across a broad range of USACE projects.

5 Oct 2022

Resilience in Distributed Sensor Networks

Abstract: With the advent of cheap and available sensors, there is a need for intelligent sensor selection and placement for various purposes. While previous research was focused on the most efficient sensor networks, we present a new mathematical framework for efficient and resilient sensor network installation. Specifically, in this work we formulate and solve a sensor selection and placement problem when network resilience is also a factor in the optimization problem. Our approach is based on the binary linear programming problem. The generic formulation is probabilistic and applicable to any sensor types, line-of-site and non-line-of-site, and any sensor modality. It also incorporates several realistic constraints including finite sensor supply, cost, energy consumption, as well as specified redundancy in coverage areas that require resilience. While the exact solution is computationally prohibitive, we present a fast algorithm that produces a near-optimal solution that can be used in practice. We show how such formulation works on 2D examples, applied to infrared (IR) sensor networks designed to detect and track human presence and movements in a specified coverage area. Analysis of coverage and comparison of sensor placement with and without resilience considerations is also performed.

29 Sep 2022

Financing Natural Infrastructure: Exploration Green, Texas

PURPOSE: This technical note is part of a series collaboratively produced by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)–Institute for Water Resources (IWR) and the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). It describes the funding process for Exploration Green, a large- scale community initiative that transformed a former golf course into a multipurpose green space with flood detention, habitat, and recreation benefits. It is one in a series of technical notes that document successful examples of funding natural infrastructure projects. The research effort is a collaboration between the Engineering With Nature® (EWN®) and Systems Approach to Geomorphic Engineering (SAGE) programs of USACE. A key need for greater application of natural infrastructure approaches is information about obtaining funds to scope, design, construct, monitor, and adaptively manage these projects. As natural infrastructure techniques vary widely by location, purpose, and scale, there is no standard process for securing funds. The goal of this series is to share lessons learned about a variety of funding and financing methods to increase the implementation of natural infrastructure projects.

29 Sep 2022

Birds of the Craney Island Dredged Material Management Area, Portsmouth, Virginia, 2008-2020

Abstract: This report presents the results of a long-term trend analyses of seasonal bird community data from a monitoring effort conducted on the Craney Island Dredged Material Management Area (CIDMMA) from 2008 to 2020, Portsmouth, VA. The USACE Richmond District collaborated with the College of William and Mary and the Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory, Waterbird Team, to conduct year-round semimonthly area counts of the CIDMMA to examine species presence and population changes overtime. This effort provides information on the importance of the area to numerous bird species and bird species’ groups and provides an index to those species and group showing significant changes in populations during the monitoring period. We identified those species regionally identified as Highest, High, and Moderate Priority Species based on their status as rare, sensitive, or in need of conservation attention as identified by the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture (ACJV), Bird Conservation Region (BCR), New England/Mid-Atlantic Bird Conservation Area (BCR 30). Of 134 ranked priority species in the region, the CIDMMA supported 102 of 134 (76%) recognized in the BCR, including 16 of 19 (84%) of Highest priority ranked species, 47 of 60 (78.3%) of High priority species, and 39 of 55 (71%) of Moderate priority species for BCR 30. All bird count and species richness data collected were fitted to a negative binomial (mean abundance) or Poisson distribution (mean species richness) and a total of 271 species and over 1.5 million birds were detected during the monitoring period. Most all bird species and species groups showed stable or increasing trends during the monitoring period. These results indicate that the CIDMMA is an important site that supports numerous avian species of local and regional conservation concern throughout the year.