In response to large scale damaging floods in California's Central Valley in 1997, the Corps of Engineers and the California Reclamation Board initiated the Sacramento and San Joaquin River Basins Comprehensive Study (the Comp. Study). The study has two broad objectives: (1) reduce flood damage; and (2) integrate environmental restoration/protection into flood damage reduction.
The Corps and the Board recognized that implementation of large scale, system wide solutions would take time. In an effort to provide some relief sooner, they identified a set of initial projects (IPs). These are site specific solutions that are relatively small in scope. Enhanced flood response and emergency preparedness in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River basins was one such IP.
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Based upon our earlier successes with flood warning system design and implementation, the Corps contracted with us to develop an Enhanced Flood Response and Emergency Preparedness (EFREP) IP.
To do so, we organized investigations of the following system components: (1) data collection and transmission; (2) data control and management; (3) integrated evaluation; (4) public information dissemination; and (5) system wide preparedness. We prepared a set of 10 reports that present a summary of the current state of these, report on any plans for improvement, expansion, and enhancement, outline our recommendations for enhancements, and classify those enhancements as new efforts or opportunities for reusing data or results from the Comp. Study.
Finally, we developed a set of alternative EFREP plans, evaluated the benefits and costs of each, and recommended a plan for inclusion as a component of the Comp. Study.
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