Abstract

Prioritizing Levee Improvements in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
Track: Water Resources
Authors: Christian Raumann, Christian Raumann

The California Department of Water Resources is responsible for improving water supply and flood protection while restoring and enhancing the natural and human environments of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Accordingly, we developed an optimization model to aid in prioritizing levee improvements and estimating costs. The model uses ArcGIS to determine island importance based on geospatial inputs representing existing infrastructure, existing and potential ecological assets, water export impacts resulting from saltwater intrusion, and life safety. Island vulnerability to flood and seismic events is then analyzed in relation to island importance resulting in an overall criticality ranking. Monetary cost of levee improvements are calculated based on improvement type in relation to levee location, geometry, and geotechnical conditions derived using a dynamically segmented geospatial network of levee centerlines. We added flexibility to the model through user weighting of inputs to explore outcomes as well as incorporation of local knowledge and engineering expertise.

Christian Raumann
URS Corporation
1333 Broadway
Suite 800
Oakland, California 94612-1924
United States
Phone: 510-874-1717
E-mail: christian_raumann@urscorp.com

Christian Raumann
URS Corporation
1333 Broadway
Suite 800
Oakland, California 94612-1924
United States
Phone: 510-874-1717
E-mail: christian_raumann@urscorp.com