Sustainability and Resilience

This article, 'West Coast levee failures show growing risks from America's aging flood defenses', did an incredible job describing the extreme weather and levee failures in the northwest last month. Were any of you impacted by the floods in Washington, Oregon and California? 

Utah has been trying to highlight the poor condition of our levees after our state Infrastructure Report Card release last year. It's tough to bring urgency to these structures as they are victims of both the "out of sight out of mind" phenomenon and the Normalcy Bias of emergency preparedness. Have any states had success stories for levee projects or flood control resilience projects that might help us out? We don't want to be next in the regional news for levee breaks!

#ResilientInfrastructureSystems
#SystemFailures
#LessonslearnedfromCatastrophicDisasters
#ClimateMitigation

------------------------------
Anna Lisonbee EIT, ENV SP, M.ASCE
Sandy UT
------------------------------

This is an enormous problem, Anna. Thanks for posting Vahedifard's article.

I believe the best way to draw attention to the dangers is by using Risk Assessment and Management techniques that show the number of lives and property damage values at specific probabilities. California had considerable success with that approach to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta levees, although keeping state and federal legislators' attention focused remains a problem.

I quibble with Vahedifard (he was a valued colleague at Mississippi State University a few years ago) on only one point. When a levee overtops, it isn't "failing." A properly constructed and maintained overtopped levee did the job it was designed to do, but its design capacity has been exceeded. With climate change altering flood frequency levels, maintenance now includes updates to the design flood. A former 1% flood may now be a 4% flood.

Bill Mc

------------------------------
William McAnally Ph.D., P.E., BC.CE, BC.NE, F.ASCE
ENGINEER
Columbus MS
------------------------------

Hello Anna,

Thank you for sharing this article and your insights. The challenges you mention are very real, and it's striking how often critical infrastructure like levees is overlooked until disaster strikes. I haven't been personally affected by the recent floods in Washington, Oregon, or California, but I can see the importance of proactive measures.

In my experience, successful levee and flood control projects often combine strong technical planning with community engagement and ongoing monitoring programs. For example, integrating sensor-based water level monitoring, regular inspections, and public awareness campaigns has helped some regions prevent failures before they become catastrophic. Sharing case studies of these strategies across states can really help build resilience and urgency.

I hope Utah can leverage lessons from other successful projects to strengthen your levee systems and prevent future disasters.

Best regards,
Darya Stanskova

------------------------------
Darya Stanskova M.ASCE
Cost Estimator, Construction Engineer, Power Engineer, Project Manager
Fort Myers FL
------------------------------