Water projects have always required large investments of time and money, both public and private, as well as amazing feats of engineering. Often, where water is scarce, demand is ever increasing, making the management of this precious resource of enormous social, economic and political consequence.
GEI has for decades been a leader in water resources across North America, providing engineering services on thousands of water-related projects. GEI’s water resources practice provides municipal, state and federal governmental agencies, water districts, and private dam owners a full array of integrated professional water resources as well as geotechnical, environmental, and ecological consulting services, employing many of the best minds in the business to help clients solve their project challenges.
Our Focus
Planning
By providing effective workable solutions that meet the technical, institutional, regulatory, economic and environmental challenges facing water managers, GEI enables communities to meet their current and future water needs in the most efficient manner. With the increased demand on our water resources, GEI’s has planned, arranged financing for, designed and managed the construction of irrigation projects delivering water to regions across the country and abroad. GEI assists its clients in the preparation of water management plans, including integrated water management plans, groundwater management plans, urban water management plans and agricultural water management plans which, in turn, help formulate our clients’ vision through the development of sensible and implementable plans. GEI has designed and implemented water supply master plans for urban and rural areas, including cities, special districts, planned communities and resort areas.
Flood Control
GEI has a team of specialists located across the U.S. with expertise in surface and subsurface drainage, as well as flood hydrology and flood control facilities. Our team applies advanced hydrologic and hydraulic models that take into account historic rainfall and runoff events, maximum probable event predictions and multiple reservoir operational considerations. These considerations include flood control, recreation, power generation, endangered species, water supply and wild and scenic river issues. We provide our clients with solutions that integrate yesterday’s history with today’s technology.
Groundwater
Groundwater evaluations and infrastructure improvements have been an integral part of GEI services for years, supporting efforts to develop groundwater production and groundwater recharge to make groundwater more sustainable. Investigations have ranged from small isolated groundwater basins to large regional groundwater basins, and from locating individual wells to wellfields. Across these projects, the fundamental elements remain the same: groundwater geology, occurrence and movement of groundwater and groundwater quality. It is this back-to-basics approach that has given GEI the understanding necessary to develop innovative groundwater projects.
Waterfront Engineering
GEI has the in-house coastal and waterfront engineers and scientists required to respond to the coastal environment. They give the firm a unique niche by their ability to understand and solve complex technical issues related to land and waterfront development. The group often collaborates with planners and architects to assist clients in assessing overall project feasibility, site selection, value engineering, environmental permitting, preparation of final plans and specifications and providing construction phase services for final implementation.
Environmental
Today’s environmental regulations are complex and challenging. GEI’s clients need expert assistance to navigate through the labyrinth of federal, state and local regulatory compliance requirements. GEI’s planners, permit and climate change experts, scientists, biologists, archaeologists and architectural historians help our clients obtain required project permits with acceptable terms and conditions to build your project to specifications, while staying on budget and schedule.
Sea Level Rise
Sea level rise is affecting thousands of miles of the United States coastline and trillions of dollars in vulnerable real estate and infrastructure. Across specialties, GEI is a one-stop opportunity for our clients to make themselves more resilient in the face of these challenges, which will only become more acute in the coming decades. We help answer difficult questions such as “Should we upsize our culverts?” “How do we go about elevating our working waterfront?” and “Is it worth it to build a seawall or should we just relocate the assets?” We then help implement the right solutions, whether they include living shorelines, bulkheads, or relocation of vulnerable assets.