WEBVTT

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Since the inception of the US Army

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Corps of Engineers Engineering with

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Nature program in 2010 , significant

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progress has been made in developing

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and applying practical methods that

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demonstrate the benefits of an

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ecosystem approach to infrastructure

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development and operations . As a

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result , E . W . N . Features are

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increasingly being considered as an

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important component of coastal flood

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protection and dredge material

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management strategies . As the

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incorporation of natural and nature

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based features and core projects has

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become more frequent . The need to

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accurately and efficiently model and

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test these project designs has also

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increased . However hydrodynamic

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numerical modeling of these features

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can be a time consuming process with

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limited guidance available on how to

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execute this workflow . To solve this

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challenge researchers from the US Army

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Engineer Research and Development

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Center have developed the E . W . N .

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Modeling toolkit , which is a series of

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tools that enable more timely and

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accurate modeling of E . W . N .

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Features . So there was a need within

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the modeling community to not only

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reduce the amount of time required to

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incorporate natural and nature based

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features into numerical models , but

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also to develop a set of standards that

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modelers could use to characterize

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these features . So for this reason the

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Engineering with Nature modeling

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toolkit was developed to address those .

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The toolkit is a simple set of tools

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that allows the user to supply the

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outline of the feature that they want

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to incorporate into their model using

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either simple polygon or simple shape

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style . Um And then the toolkit then

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incorporate those features into a model

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mesh through a automated rapid

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mesh refinement technique . The toolkit

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also contains a set of default values

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for certain parameters associated with

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different types of features . One

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parameter , for example would be the

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mannings and roughness coefficient .

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And these default values were developed

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based on a literature review of current

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guidance and practices and they allow

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the user to have a quick reference that

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they can use as a means of

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characterizing their features . Before

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the E . W . N . Toolkit was developed ,

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it was a highly manual process . What

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ended up happening was our team at the

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environmental lab would have to define

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the symmetry and then determined from

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information about the local area about

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the tides , about the vegetation

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species that were present , where those

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different types of vegetation would end

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up on these new features . And so it

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was a lot of back and forth with the

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sea storm team that was developing the

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mesh , we would have to define the path

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symmetry , define where the vegetation

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was and then determine how best to

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refine the mesh in that area . So we

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could actually implement those features

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and so it could take weeks to develop

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just a handful of features . Whereas

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with the toolkit we can now largely

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automate that and sort of define the

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constraints that are set by the

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vegetation itself . When we were

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designing the toolkit , we had to think

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a lot about how these features might

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change regionally and how they might

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scale with parameters from the

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environment , like the tide range . So

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we really paid a lot of attention to

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how you would dictate where for

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instance , a low marsh would exist

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given your your setting in the

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environment . So we had to think about

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how to define the feature as far as

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elevation with respect to our title

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data , that we also have to think about

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what species might be there because for

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instance , you end up with a different

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assortment of March species on the gulf

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coast in some cases especially in

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coastal Louisiana than you would in in

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the northeast or in California . So we

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really had had to pay attention to the

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setting and make sure that that was

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clearly communicated in the

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documentation and within the toolkit

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itself , we're trying to make it harder

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to make mistakes that might be easy to

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make . Otherwise there's two major

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impacts to the W . N . C . Storm

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toolkit . One is that it standardizes

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the numerical modeling process of

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including natural nature based features

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into existing hydrodynamic models and

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the other is that it streamlines that

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process . So the standardization is

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great for the coastal numerical

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modeling community because we are now

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including these N . N . B . F . In the

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same way over many platforms . So we're

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able to look at the same literature

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review that's included in this toolkit

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and apply the same values in a

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consistent style . So because we have

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streamlined the process of including

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the N . N . B . F . Into the numerical

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modeling framework . You can look at

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more alternative designs over one scope

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of work . So this can increase the

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breadth of research and also breath of

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different designs you're looking at for

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alternative infrastructure coastal

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engineering designs . We have lots of

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visions for the future of the sea storm

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toolkit . One of them is removing the

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word sea storm and making this an E W .

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N . Model agnostic toolkit where we

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started with the sea storm , the

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coastal storm modeling system , which

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is the advanced circulation model and S .

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T . Wave , which are our circulation

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and wave models that are coupled

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together . We started with that because

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the sea storm system is so robust and

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has so many existing codes for

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validation . We want to make sure the

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toolkit reaches beyond the coastal

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numerical modeling and can go to the

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other environments as well . We would

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like to make the E W N . C storm

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toolkit easily accessible and

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efficiently accessible to the numerical

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modeling community . To do that . We

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are including the gooey package online

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through a video and also packaging that

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with existing tutorials that we've

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developed along the way . As we've

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created that gooey . We are also

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offering workshops for the districts

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for NGos for organizations outside of

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us and we are recording those

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workshops so that we can ultimately put

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youtube videos online to help the users

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not only download the gooey quickly ,

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but use it effectively and efficiently