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USACE Reports and Manuals

Beyond technical manuals, USACE has produced several manuals, reports, and guides useful to planners.

2020

• Planning Mentor Handbook – A Tool for Mentors Assisting USACE Project Delivery Teams, Version 1.0
  This Handbook describes concepts, tools, and techniques available to help guide study teams incorporate risk-informed decision making in the USACE water resources project planning process, especially in the early phases of the iterative six-step planning process. The Handbook is a useful reference if you are a planning mentor or a planner working looking to explore applying these concepts to a project.
• USACE National Nonstructural Committee Best Practice Guide 2020-01_Rev2: Calculating Interest During Construction for Nonstructural Alternatives
  This Guide establishes a best practice method for calculating interest during construction (IDC) expenditures for proposed nonstructural alternatives. Unlike the construction period used to calculate the IDC for structural alternatives, the construction period for nonstructural alternatives can be based on the time to construct one increment of the alternative.
• USACE National Nonstructural Committee Best Practice Guide 2020-05: Policy Considerations for Nonstructural Measures
  This Guide identifies policy considerations for each type of nonstructural measure commonly considered as part of USACE feasibility studies.
• USACE National Nonstructural Committee Best Practice Guide 2020-06: Structure Aggregation Methods Used in the Formulation and Evaluation of Nonstructural Alternatives
  This Guide establishes a best practice method for the aggregation of structures to be used in the formulation and evaluation of nonstructural alternatives.

  2019

• Partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: A Guide for Communities, Local Governments, States, Tribes, and Non-Governmental Organizations
  Partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: A Guide for Communities, Local Governments, States, Tribes, and Non-Governmental Organizations provides potential sponsors with information on the programs and processes available for non-Federal partners and USACE representatives to work together to address the Nation’s water resources problems. The Guide includes an overview of the USACE Civil Works Program and describes how USACE can work with local, State, Tribal, and Federal agencies and other non-Federal partners on activities ranging from technical services and advice to planning and constructing water resources projects. A previous version of this document was originally published as the Project Partnership Kit by IWR back in 1996 and revised in 2001.
• USACE National Nonstructural Committee Best Practice Guide 2020-02: Considerations for Estimating Participation Rates in Voluntary Nonstructural Measures
  This Guide establishes best practices for estimating participation rates in USACE nonstructural alternatives containing voluntary elements.
• USACE National Nonstructural Committee Best Practice Guide 2020-03: Sensitivity Analysis for Participation Rates in Nonstructural Alternatives
  This Guide applies to the planning process for all USACE flood risk management (FRM) and coastal storm risk management (CSRM) nonstructural measures.
• USACE National Nonstructural Committee Best Practice Guide 2020-04: Public Law 91-646: Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970
  This Guide establishes best practices for considering Public Law (P.L.) 91-646, Uniform Relocation Assistance and the Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 in nonstructural assessments.

  2017

• Planning Manual Part II: Risk-Informed Planning
  The Planning Manual Part II: Risk Informed Planning documents the state of the practice in risk-informed planning for the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Planning Community of Practice. It is a continuation of the original Planning Manual, published by the USACE Institute for Water Resources in 1996.
• Principles of Risk Analysis for Water Resources
  This report represents an effort to document the state of the practice in risk analysis for use by US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Transparent and defensible analysis provides a critical piece of information for decision making. It is incumbent on the analysist to inform others about sources and validity of all the data, models, and assumptions that are part of the analysis. The analyst must also acknowledge and highlight the key uncertainties by reporting a range of values with their likelihoods when possible. Additionally, the impacts of uncertainty on the results, and the overall confidence in the values of decision variables presented to decision makers must be part of any decision document.

  2015

• A Guide to Public Alerts and Warnings for Dam and Levee Emergencies
  The purpose of this guidebook is to assist emergency managers in issuing more timely and effective public alert and warning messages for floods caused by dam breaches, controlled dam releases, and levee breaches or overtopping.
• SMART Planning Feasibility Studies: A Guide to Coordination and Engagement with the Services
  This guide was developed through a collaboration between the Corps, USFWS and NMFS. The Guide provides an overview of the SMART Planning process and demonstrates how key environmental coordination and compliance activities fit into that process. The Guide highlights opportunities for engagement and coordination at all stages of a planning study, re-emphasizing the need for early coordination.
• Use of Natural and Nature-Based Features (NNBF) for Coastal Resilience
  ERDC technical report cataloguing natural and nature based features and measures for coastal resilience projects.

  1997

• Planning Primer
  The Planning Primer is a condensed version of the Planning Manual. It is an introduction to planning and how it is done using the six-step planning process for those who have no formal training in planning.

  1996

• Planning Manual
  The Planning Manual describes what planning is and how it is best practiced by the Corps of Engineers. It focuses on water resources planning, though the principles, tools and methodologies discussed are equally applicable to other planning functions as well. The Manual walks planners through the six-step planning process used by the Corps and applicable to all the Corps’ water resources and other planning functions.

• IWR Report 96-PS-4 Water Supply Handbook
• SMART Planning Charette Handbook