Analytical Frameworks for Addressing Physical, Social, and Institutional Changes in Water Resources Planning and Management

Abstract

Abstract : The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) incorporated lessons learned from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita into an Actions for Change initiative to transform planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance, and decision making processes. Theme 1 has emphasized an integrated, comprehensive, and systems-based approach that shifts focus from individual projects to an interdependent system. In this report, the Incremental Changes to USACE Systems effort focused on using comprehensive and topic-specific analytical frameworks (AFs) for addressing physical, social, and institutional (PSI) changes within water resources planning and management. An AF denotes a planning framework or step-wise process with analytical and synthesis features. The existing USACE six-step planning process represents a comprehensive AF for water resources. Numerous other topic-specific AFs for addressing PSI changes were examined as supporting tools within the USACE six-step process. This report provides examples of AFs that could be immediately useful in planning and managing PSI changes as USACE adopts risk-based project planning, and it suggests additions to the six steps that would be useful in certain scenarios. The report concludes there is no need for USACE to develop a comprehensive AF specifically focused on PSI changes because topic-specific AFs can be used to support the existing USACE six-step process.