• Army Corps of Engineers announces the signing of the Chief’s Report for the proposed Fire Island Inlet to Montauk Point, New York Coastal Storm Risk Management Project

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District, announces the signing of Report of the Chief of Engineers for the Fire Island Inlet to Montauk Point (FIMP), New York Coastal Storm Risk Management Project.
  • Vicksburg District temporarily closes dam road at Arkabutla Lake

    VICKSBURG, Miss. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Vicksburg District has temporarily closed the road over Arkabutla Dam at Arkabutla Lake, located in Tate and DeSoto counties in north Mississippi, to install new piezometers.
  • Pacific Ocean Division holds Change of Command & Responsibility Ceremony

    Brig. Gen. Thoma J. Tickner relinquished his position as commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Pacific Ocean Division (POD) to Col. Kirk E. Gibbs, during a social distance adherence change of command and responsibility ceremony, July 8. The Army division conducted the change of responsibility from Command Sgt. Maj. Patrickson Toussaint to Command Sgt. Maj. Douglas W. Galick.
  • Army Corps of Engineers reports an increase in adult drowning at its lake and river projects this summer

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced today that more than 30 people lost their lives to drowning in June at lake and river projects the agency manages. The June statistics represent a 47 percent increase in drownings over the same time period last year. USACE also reported that nearly all the drowning victims were adult males between the ages of 18 and 85 and were not wearing a life jacket at the time of the drowning.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: Spatiotemporally coherent tensor decompositions for the analysis of trajectory data By Trevor Ruiz and Charlotte Ellison

    Abstract: Location acquisition technologies such as global positioning systems (GPS) sensors or telemetry devices generate abundant spatiotemporal measurements of movement of people, animals, and vehicles. The resultant data represent trajectories-paths in space and time traversed by moving objects- and can often be merged with additional information about the entities in motion from connected or external data sources (Zheng 2015). New data analysis frameworks may be able to uncover patterns of human behavior from the fused trajectory and contextual i information. This data and new insights gained from novel analysis tools are p potentially of great interest to the Army and the geospatial community.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: Influences of U Sources and Forms on Its Bioaccumulation in Indian Mustard and Sunflower

    Abstract: Anthropogenic activities, such as ore mining and processing, nuclear power generation, and weapon tests, have generated uranium (U) contamination to soils and waters. The mobility and bioavailability of U are influenced by its sources, speciation, and plant species. Phytoremediation has emerged as an environmentally friendly, cost-effective green technology to remediate radioisotope-and metalcontaminated soils. The main objective of this study was to explore the feasibility using sunflower (Helianthus annuus) and Indian mustard (Brassica juncea) in cleaning up soils with UO2, UO3, and UO2(NO3)2. Uranium was found to be bioaccumulated in plant roots more than plant shoots. Uranium uptake by both plant species was significantly higher from the UO3- and uranyl-contaminated soils than from UO2- contaminated soils. UO3- and UO2(NO3)2-contaminated soils showed higher exchangeable, weak acid extractable, and labile U than the UO2-contaminated soils. After a growing season, three U forms decreased as redistribution/transformation of U resulted in U species with lower extractability. This study indicates the importance of U speciation in soil with regard to the potential use of sunflower and Indian mustard for phytoremediation of U-contaminated soils.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: Foundations of Mission Analysis Storytelling (FOMAS)

    Abstract: Mission analysis is a critical step in military planning and decision-making. It is currently time-consuming for analysts, who have few automated tools. The Foundations of Mission Analysis Storytelling (FOMAS) project developed algorithms, tools, and methods to automate sensemaking for mission analysis, which reduces the time and increases the effectiveness of the process. This report describes the FOMAS research, specifically as it relates to storytelling and link analysis. It includes descriptions of storytelling and a related prototype implementation, “Spatio-temporal Retrieval and Introspection of Data and Embedded Relationships, (STRIDER).” It also describes user engagements involving STRIDER and a prototype information collection and processing tool, the Big Open Source Social Science (BOSSS).
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: Hydrodynamics of a Recently Restored Coastal Wetland: Hamilton Wetlands, California

    Abstract: Hamilton Wetlands is a recently restored tidally influenced basin located along the northwest coast of San Pablo Bay, California. Instruments to measure waves, currents, and wind were deployed for a period of up to 2 years shortly after tidal flow was re-introduced to the wetland to examine the sediment and hydrodynamic response. The results indicate that local re-suspension is relatively rare owing to the weak interior tidal currents and the limited fetch within the 3 km long basin. Asymmetries in the acoustic backscatter intensity combined with the much higher flow speeds measured at the entrance suggest a net import of fine sediment. The basin also experiences a distinct seasonal variation that likely contributes to sediment re-distribution. During the summer months, higher wind speeds correlate with turbidity suggesting local re-suspension of fines that are distributed by winds. Overall, the measurements suggest that the sediment dynamics in this shallow water system are controlled by two main factors: (1) net sediment import through the inlet entrance and (2) mixing of interior sediment through a combination of intermittent wind and wave stirring.
  • PUBLICATION NOTICE: Rapid Tidal Reconstruction for the Coastal Hazards System and StormSim Part I: Coastal Texas and Louisiana

    Abstract: incorporating a rapid tidal time series reconstruction and prediction subroutine within the Coastal Hazards System (CHS) framework. The CHS (https://chs.erdc.dren.mil) is a national database and web tool that provides probabilistic coastal hazard analysis (PCHA) products developed from regional studies such as the North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study (Nadal-Caraballo et al. 2015; Cialone et al. 2015). PCHA considers hazards due to both tropical and extratropical cyclones, depending on the storm climatology of the region of interest. The CHS supports feasibility studies, probabilistic design of coastal structures, flood risk management for coastal communities, and critical infrastructure. In the case of tropical cyclones (TCs) or hurricanes, both the timing of landfall and the level of the astronomical tide at the landfall location are critical in determining the magnitude of the still water level (i.e., storm surge + wave setup + astronomical tide). Therefore, a robust and accurate tide prediction methodology is needed to provide reliable reconstruction of tidal time series for historical, synthetic, and forecasted hurricane scenarios. This CHETN also discusses the quantification and validation of the Advanced Circulation (ADCIRC) tidal constituent database in the coastal Texas and Louisiana region as well as the implementation of the tidal reconstruction program Unified Tidal analysis (UTide) in the CHS framework.
  • ERDC scientist receives patent for Soldiers’ 3-D terrain support

    Recognizing that accurate and timely terrain models are critical for Soldiers in many areas of the world, scientists at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Geospatial Research Laboratory (GRL) invented a cost-efficient method to generate high-resolution 3-D terrain data using existing unmanned platforms.