Solving the Levee Puzzle: How the Right Data and Tools Can Help Any Owner Make their System More Successful

A Q&A with Michael Bachand, Senior Engineer / Water Practice Leader

Levee owners and operators play a key role in keeping communities safe from flooding. They are responsible for the everyday care of levees, including maintenance, repairs, and emergency response during floods. Regular planning and preventative maintenance help catch small problems early—before they become costly repairs or threaten the strength of the levee when floodwater rises.

For GEI’s Levee Services campaign, we asked Michael to provide insight into the key focus areas for levee owners. Michael is a senior geotechnical engineer with more than 26 years of experience in both the private and federal sectors. Before joining GEI, Mike held several key positions with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). He served as the New England District Levee Safety Program Manager and as the Dam & Levee Safety Officer, where he was responsible for all dam and levee safety decisions for over 32 dams and 62 levee systems, and finally led the development of portions of the National Levee Safety Program.

How can levee owners make their levees safe?

Safe and reliable levees depend on stable funding, accurate information, public understanding of both the benefits and limits of levees, and strong support from government as part of a shared responsibility to manage flood risk. To accomplish all those things, owners should start by planning and making informed decisions based on what they know.  At times this can seem overwhelming. Often, levee owners don’t know where to start or how to integrate all of the pieces of the puzzle.

What are some of those critical pieces and questions?

Just about every levee owner has asked or will soon ask these questions related to the big pieces.

• Condition & Performance – What is the condition of my levee? How will it perform during a flood? What information do I need?
• Navigating regulation and policy at local, state, and federal levels – What am I required to do? What permits are needed? Who do I contact?
• Roles and responsibilities – Who else has roles and responsibilities in levees? What are those roles and responsibilities?
• Funding – How do I pay for all the activities I need to do? What are the rules and requirements for the programs? How do I get support?
• Public Outreach & Engagement – Do I need to do public outreach and engagement? What information should I share and with whom?
• Decision Making – How do I make cost effective decisions? What tools and resources are available to help? What information is available?

Where do you generally recommend levee owners start their evaluations?

It really depends on what is known or maybe what is unknown. Every levee system and levee owner is a little bit different and at a different place and time. However, I always recommend starting out with the basics and building a strategy.

First, it’s important to collect all existing information: alignment, elevation data, design and inspection reports, and the status within the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). What levee owners want to build towards is – at a minimum – a basic understanding of the levee’s condition, expected performance, and who lives behind AND benefits from the levee. These key pieces will assist owners in developing a method to find financial and technical resources, navigate regulation, and identify outreach/engagement to assist in making informed decisions.

One of the terms used often in the industry is “shared responsibility”. Can you explain that idea a bit more?  

The term “shared responsibility” can be confusing, and it’s often used in conjunction with levee projects for the simple reason that most levees are in people’s backyards and play an important role in the success of a community. Levee owners are essential as they have the primary responsibility of operating and maintaining the levees. However, that doesn’t mean they have to do it all.

Any successful levee system requires plenty of support and collaboration. The support and collaboration can vary depending on regional or local laws but what’s important is community engagement. This should include community residents and business leaders who gain value from the levee, emergency managers to help communicate and manage any levee emergencies, lawmakers to provide financial assistance, and regulators for permitting.

How can levee owners make more cost-effective decisions with limited resources? 

The key to making cost-effective decisions with limited information is to begin with a strategy or plan that accounts for what you know, what you don’t know, and establishes targets for incremental progress. Often, just getting started is the biggest challenge.

For example, a lot of people jump to using risk assessments or making risk-informed decisions.  But for many levee owners that isn’t practical or easy to understand, so I always say start simple.

I was involved in a levee project on the West Coast where the owner was able to start simply by creating an Emergency Action Plan, which included engagement of public officials and the community. From there, they were able to get financial support to start performing routine levee inspections and ultimately were able to perform a risk assessment.

What kind of guidance do you provide owners with limited resources?

The need for funding is probably the #1 need for any infrastructure owner. Unfortunately, there is no magic solution. For levees, it’s important to know a couple of things. First, there is really no funding source (at the federal level) for traditional operation and maintenance (O&M) activities. Most federal programs explicitly prohibit funds from going to what’s considered routine O&M activities.

However, there are options, but it takes some time to piece together as most funding programs have specific areas they focus on. My recommendation is to collect two key pieces of information. The first is what are the activities, timeline, and rough cost that you need help with. Second, develop a plan that matches those needs up against potential programs at the federal, state, and local levels. Any gaps that exist will help you decide how to prioritize your limited resources.

What are some of the tools and resources you recommend to levee owners?

If levee owners know what they need or want to do, then the next step is selecting the right tool to help. Here are a few important tools:

• National Levee Database (NLD) – If a levee owner can get their system into the NLD, at a minimum, it will calculate the estimated number of people and value of the buildings behind the levee system.
• USACE Levee Cost Estimating Tool – USACE developed an online tool to assist levee owners with understanding the high-level range of costs for common levee-related activities spanning the full life cycle of a levee system.
• Emergency Action Plan (EAP) Template – USACE developed a template for levee owners to assist then in developing an EAP to minimize the impact to people and property.

What type of information should levee owners share and why is information sharing valuable?

Plenty of information could be shared, but what owners should share depends on what they are trying to achieve. At a minimum, I would suggest sharing two key pieces of information: (1) the benefits of the levee, and (2) how to get people out if something should go wrong.

Levees provide tremendous value, but we don’t often talk about that. Levee owners can show the value of the system for the people living and working behind levees and to politicians to help get funding and/or public support for their O&M activities.

Second, it’s important for levee owners to share inundation maps and emergency action plans with public officials and emergency managers. I was involved in a levee project in New England where the levee owner prioritized information sharing and engagement. This approach allowed them to gain support to pass a utility rate increase to pay for the levee repair and to secure much needed right-of-entries through a neighborhood, keeping the construction costs lower.

If you are a levee owner and are at the very beginning of evaluating your system or in the middle of trying to put these puzzle pieces together and need help, contact me.