Browsing by Author "Michelsen, Dr. Ari"
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Item Estimated Benefits of IBWC Rio Grande Flood-Control Projects in the United States(Texas Water Resources Institute, 2004-09) Villalobos, Joshua I.; Srinivasan, R.; Sheng, Z.; Staats, Chris; Robinson, John R.C.; Morrison, Wendy; McGuckin, James T.; Madison, W. Tom; Jacobs, Jennifer H.; Freeman, Roger; Eriksson, Marian; Assadian, Naomi; Rister, M. Edward; Michelsen, Dr. Ari; Lacewell, Ronald D.; Sturdivant, Allen W.The International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) is responsible for maintaining a series of flood-control projects beginning in New Mexico and extending along the Rio Grande’s international border dividing the United States and Mexico. A review by the USIBWC indicate that, over time, the flood-control capability of the levees has been compromised, possibly to the point where the level of protection is below original-design capacities. Prior to investing federal monies in the rehabilitation of major flood-system infrastructure, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget requires an economic analysis of expected benefits, or losses avoided with implemented protection measures. Recent flood events along the international border, resulting in significant economic damages and loss of human life, emphasized the need for a timely assessment of impacts of potential flood-control failure. Given a short project time line mandated by IBWC and the large geographic extent of the river- and floodway-levee system, innovative methods were developed to conduct a rapid and preliminary economic assessment of the flood-control infrastructure. Estimates for four major project areas relating only to the U.S.-side of the border only (stretching from Caballo Reservoir in New Mexico to the Rio Grande’s mouth, near Brownsville, TX.) comprise the study’s focus. Millions populate the cities and towns along these economic reaches of the Rio Grande where extensive housing, commerce, industry, tourism, and irrigated agricultural production exist. Areas susceptible to flooding, along with land-use, were identified and quantified through high-resolution map imagery. Estimates of representative residential, commercial, and industrial property values and agricultural production values were developed from property assessment records, economic development councils, crop enterprise budgets and cropping patterns, census data, previous U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ flooding studies, etc. Gross economic values of flood-control benefits for a sample of each of the land-use types were determined and extrapolated to similar land-use areas in the flood zone. This analytical method provides a rapidassessment of potential flood-control benefits for a single event for each of the four IBWCdesignated flood-control project areas. An aggregate estimate arrived at by summing the potential benefits across all four project areas assumes avoidance of, or protection against, a simultaneous breach in all areas. Baseline economic benefits for agriculture and developed property along the Rio Grande Canalization project are estimated at $13.7 million (basis FY 2004). Comparable estimates for the Rio Grande Rectification project are $139.1 million, while those for the Presidio Valley Flood Control project amount to $2.9 million. The Lower Rio Grande Flood Control project is estimated to provide $167.2 million in flood-control benefits. Combined, the four project areas provide $322.9 million in flood-control protection benefits in the baseline analysis. When preliminary estimates of $183.0 million in other costs (i.e., emergency, roads, utilities, and vehicles) are added to the baseline estimate, the total floodcontrol protection benefits provided by the four project areas increases to $506.0 million.Item Federal Flood Assessment Conference Recommendations and Proceedings(Texas Water Resources Institute, 2006-09-06) Michelsen, Dr. Ari; Brock, Peter; Reyes, SilvestreBeginning in late July and continuing through mid September 2006 the Paso del Norte region, consisting of El Paso City and County, Texas, southern New Mexico and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, experienced a number of record high precipitation events and severe localized and widespread flooding. According to the National Weather service, the July 31 to August 4 rains alone were more like a 100-150 year recurring event over the areas hardest hit. These floods that continued over a period of more than a month caused extensive and costly damage to infrastructure, homes, businesses and other property to the extent the region was declared a Federal Disaster Area. In this bi-national, three state region many different Federal agencies and other organizations have jurisdiction or roles in forecasting climate and river flows, monitoring hydrology, water management operations, flood control design and construction, security, infrastructure, communication and disaster assistance. Congressman Silvestre Reyes convened this Federal Flood Assessment Conference to tap into the recent experiences regarding levels of coordination between federal agencies during this month's flood control operations in the Hatch/Las Cruces area of southern New Mexico and the El Paso/Juarez area of West Texas. This meeting between the federal water management agencies was foreseen as timely and important for reviewing the effects of the storm and to offer recommendations for needed changes and improvements. Valuable information was shared at the conference that will greatly assist in assessing the flood events, improving management and coordination among federal agencies and mitigating future impacts. Insight gained from the conference and the follow up summary reports contained in the proceedings will also help lay the groundwork for future planning and coordination with state and local agencies, irrigation districts and other organizations. One of Congressman Reyes’ desired outcomes from the conference is a proceedings report containing summaries of each organization’s observations, responses and recommendations regarding the area’s flood events. This conference proceedings and recommendation report contains a summary of priority agency and organization recommendations, conference agenda, list of participants, individual agency follow up reports identifying the agency responsibilities, flood event impacts from the agency perspective, agency actions, lessons learned, communication successes, full list of agency priority recommendations, identification of planned incident reports and agency contact information. Infrastructure funding, improved communication, river and levee maintenance, and the need for additional weather and gauging stations, telemetry and coordinated or centralized access to real-time monitoring data are among the highest priority recommendations. A summary of common priority recommendations follows this section. A more complete list of agency and organization priority recommendations is provided following the individual agency reports. The report also includes agency conference Power Point presentations and as additional background, maps showing gauging station locations and monitoring organizations.