August 2007 - 2007 Levee Conference
posted by Larry J SmithThe 2007 Levee Conference sponsored by SAME and ASCE was a resounding success. The conference was held July 24 -26 at the Holiday Inn Capitol Plaza in Sacramento, California. The conference sold out its 400-seat capacity well in advance. The conference attracted an International audience of professionals from all parts of the United States representing industry, government and academia.
The conference began with a retrospective of levee and flood-wall failures in New Orleans. Speakers’ repeatedly citied deficiencies in the design, construction, maintenance and administration of the New Orleans flood control system as inspiration for new thinking in each of these areas.
Californians are waking up to disaster or at least they are waking up to the possibility of a flood and water-supply disaster awaiting if any of the central or upper valley Levees let go.
Speakers at the conference discussed risk and uncertainty considerations form hydrology, hydraulics, stochastic, river morphology, soil strength and stability, seepage, vegetation, and both landward and upstream development. State and Federal authorities described their plans to use these new ideas to prepare levee inventories, develop risk assessment criteria, perform evaluations and set priorities.
The New Orleans flood control system was only one of many described by Conference speakers. One of the Conferences’s featured speakers, BG Galloway, provided a look back at the Mississippi River 15 years after the spring floods overwhelmed flood control systems along much of the country’s biggest river.
Levee systems in the Delta were frequently discussed while systems as far away as the Netherlands and Hungry were featured in breakout sessions.
The final agenda and copies of the presentations will soon be available on the SAME Sacramento Website.