Flood risk management with HEC-WAT and the FRA compute option

Abstract

United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) policy states that USACE will analyze water resources projects, including flood risk management projects, using a risk framework that incorporates watershed, systems and life-cycle approaches. However, software to directly support these requirements has not been available. The current software sed within USACE to perform these types of analyses, HEC-FDA (Flood Damage Reduction Analysis), has a number of limitations. For this reason and others, USACE’s Hydrologic Engineering Center (CEIWR-HEC) developed the Watershed Analysis Tool (HEC-WAT). HECWAT was initially developed to assist USACE personnel conduct water resources studies of complex riverine systems with an integrated, comprehensive and systems based approach. However, since USACE also requires a life-cycle analysis, CEIWR-HEC added capability through the Flood Risk Analysis (FRA) compute option that allows risk analysis computations while incorporating a life-cycle approach. HEC-WAT/FRA includes systems and life-cycle approaches, event-based sampling, parameter sampling, and the ability to do scenario and alternative analyses. Applications of the FRA compute include levee certification studies, dam and levee safety studies, and planning and design studies. This paper will introduce HEC-WAT/FRA, describe scientific advancements included within it and provide applications to demonstrate how it will advance USACE modeling approaches.