Planning Guidance Notebook
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	USACE Reports and Manuals
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USACE Reports and Manuals

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

2021

• Feasibility Report Format and Content Guide
  This guide provides general recommendations for the format and content of USACE feasibility reports with an integrated Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The guide can be used as a starting point for nearly all feasibility reports and is appropriate for use by entry-level to senior planners. It may also be used as a reference for policy reviewers and technical specialists. The format described in the guide is not mandatory.
• Feasibility Report Summary Format and Content Guide
  This Feasibility Report Summary Format and Content Guide is intended to assist users in the development of the content and structure of the Report Summary. The Report Summary is initiated prior to the Alternative Milestone, is updated at each subsequent milestone, and is used to support briefings, decision-related meetings and hearings.
• International Guidelines on Natural and Nature-Based Features for Flood Risk Management
  The International Guidelines on Natural and Nature-Based Features for Flood Risk Management (NNBF Guidelines) is a collaborative consolidated guide meant to advance and revolutionize sustainable infrastructure and flood risk management solutions.
• Planning Quick Takes: Timely Topics for Risk-Informed Planning Studies - Version 2.0
  Planning Quick Takes: Timely Topics for Risk-Informed Planning Studies is intended for all USACE planners, whether novice, journeyman, or senior, who may benefit from learning about the various tools and techniques that can collectively be used to facilitate the iterative six-step risk-informed planning process. Formerly known as the Planning Mentor Handbook, Planning Quick Takes provides a summary of many risk-informed planning concepts, including examples and references to other sources for more detail.
• Review of Civil Works Projects: Planning SMART Guide
  High level overview of internal review processes conducted as part of USACE feasibility studies and project development.

  2020

• 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. A disclaimer was added to this Guide in November 2021.
• USACE National Nonstructural Committee Best Practice Guide 2020-07: Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 & Architectural Barriers Act of 1968
  This Guide establishes best practices for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 (ABA), for all USACE nonstructural projects.

  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 analyst 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.
• Environmental Evaluation and Compliance within the SMART Planning Framework
  This paper provides a general overview of how the environmental evaluation and compliance process fits into the SMART Planning framework. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) milestones are emphasized. More guidance to follow that is specific to the Endangered Species Act and other agency coordination milestones.
• 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.

  2013

• SMART Planning Charette Handbook
  A charette is a structured, collaborative session in which a group comes together to develop a solution to a problem. The SMART Planning Charette Handbook provides additional details and information for the teams undertaking a planning charette and the support team that will be assisting them.

  2012

• Considering the Appropriate Level of Detail in a Flood Risk Management Feasibility Study
  A 22 August 2012 guide to help Project Delivery Teams walk through the process of conducting a Flood Risk Management Feasibility Study.
• Developing a Feasibility Study with Multiple Planning Objectives
  This paper provides an overview of formulation and evaluation approaches for planners developing a feasibility study with multiple planning objectives.
• ECO-PCX Ecosystem Restoration (ER) Planning SMART Paper: Developing Problem and opportunity Statements
  A 29 June 2012 paper that was developed by the National Ecosystem Restoration Planning Center of Expertise (ECO-PCX) to increase planners' awareness of planning issues specific to Ecosystem (ER) studies and projects. The purpose of this paper is to provide tips and best practices for developing problem and opportunity statements.
• Ecosystem Restoration (ER) Planning SMART Paper: Resource Significance and its Tie to Performance Based Budgeting
  A 26 June 2012 paper that was developed by the National Ecosystem Restoration Planning Center of Expertise (ECO-PCX) to increase planners' awareness of planning issues specific to Ecosystem (ER) studies and projects. The purpose of this paper is to provide information on resource significance and budgeting for teams working on Ecosystem Restoration planning studies.
• Ecosystem Restoration (ER) Planning SMART: Hydrology and Hydraulics - Draft
  A 3 July 2012 paper that was developed by the National Ecosystem Restoration Planning Center of Expertise (ECO-PCX) to increase planners' awareness of planning issues specific to Ecosystem (ER) studies and projects. This paper discusses how H&H analyses and input fit into the planning process, the categories of tools, when they might be used, data needs, and the purpose of the tools.

  2010

• How to Plan a Water Resources Project with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: A Guide for Tribal Governments
  The Tribal Nations Community of Practice has written this booklet to provide you, our Tribal partners, with a better understanding of how best to work with the US Army Corps of Engineers. Our processes and methods can be perceived as complex, and we hope to make them clearer for you.

  1998

• IWR Report 96-PS-4 Water Supply Handbook
  This document is intended to serve as a comprehensive desk top reference on water supply topics that are spread throughout a voluminous body of Corps regulations, manuals, technical letters and memoranda, and also literature from the private sector.

  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.
• Project Partnership Kit
  The 1996 Project Partnership Kit was updated and republished by IWR in 2019 as Partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: A Guide for Communities, Local Governments, States, Tribes, and Non-Governmental Organizations.

  1994

• Cost Effectiveness Analysis for Environmental Planning: Nine EASY Steps
  This document was developed to help USACE planners conduct cost effectiveness and incremental cost analyses in planning for environmental restoration and mitigation. It presents step-by-step instructions about how to conduct the analyses, using an example to illustrate their application to a planning problem.