• USACE Closes Sargent Beach for Public Safety

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Galveston District (SWG) and Matagorda County Officials have indefinitely closed a section of federally owned property, known as Sargent Beach (West Mooring Dock Park and the Sargent Public Boat Ramp).
  • Pilot project tests new technology for collecting sediment from Niobrara River

    A joint research pilot project between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center and the Missouri Sedimentation Action Coalition was recently conducted on the Niobrara River in northeast Nebraska to test new technology designed to intercept sediment from the riverbed before it reaches Lewis and Clark Lake.
  • Public invited to share their voices on Foster and Green Peter Lakes Master Plan for Land Use

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District (USACE), invites community members to participate in shaping the future of land management at Foster and Green Peter Lakes.
  • Pilot project tests new technology for collecting sediment from Niobrara River

    A joint research pilot project between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center and the Missouri Sedimentation Action Coalition was recently conducted on the Niobrara River in northeast Nebraska to test new technology designed to intercept sediment from the riverbed before it reaches Lewis and Clark Lake.
  • USACE, partners kick off Marin City Flood Resilience Project with Nov. 7 community event

    Please join our Project Kickoff Celebration for the Marin City Flood Resilience Project on Thursday, Nov 7, 10-11 a.m. This event celebrates Marin City’s selection to be part of a Congressional Pilot Program to improve flood safety and address other water resource challenges in historically-underserved communities across the United States. Marin City was selected by the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works to be one of 12 communities who will participate in this program where the federal government will cover 100 percent of the cost of a small water resources project.
  • Notice to Boaters: Interruptions to Black Rock Lock Traffic

    BUFFALO, N.Y. — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Buffalo District will conduct a geotechnical investigation in the Black Rock Lock from November 4 through mid-December, causing an interruption to traffic through the lock. During this time, commercial and recreational vessels must give 48 hours’ notice to the Lockmaster to coordinate travel through the lock. Commercial vessels will be given preference to ensure the flow of commerce between Lake Erie, the Black Rock Channel, and the upper Niagara River. The Lockmaster and Black Rock Lock staff can be contacted by phone at 716-879-4403 and by radio at VHF-16.
  • $3M shoreline project to begin near Maritime Visitor Center in Duluth

    A $3 million construction project to improve the lakeshore near the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center in Duluth, Minnesota is set to begin in late fall 2024. The project will construct a shoreline protection system comprised of a concrete tee-wall armored by a stone revetment to decrease the adverse effects of weather and wave damage. The improvements will provide needed upgrades to the 200 feet of pedestrian walkway and ultimately connect the City of Duluth's Lake Walk structure to the Duluth Ship Canal North Pier.
  • Improving Aquatic Placement Practices for Beneficial Use of Dredged Material in the Great Lakes

    Abstract: The Great Lakes Navigation System is an economically critical waterway. To maintain safe and navigable waterways, approximately 3–5 million yd3 (2.3–3.8 million m3) of sediments are dredged annually. The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and others now recognize that beneficial use of these sediments can achieve positive economic, environmental, and social outcomes. However, historically less than 25% of dredged sediments have been beneficially used in the nearshore environment. Improvements are needed in dredged material management practices in the Great Lakes to achieve the goal of using 70% of dredged sediments beneficially by 2030. Therefore, to overcome these challenges this report reviews beneficial use of dredged material projects with the goal of improving and in-creasing beneficial-use-placement practices in the Great Lakes. Identified needs to advance beneficial-use placement in the Great Lakes include the following: (1) improved modeling of sediment-placement methods; (2) better documentation regarding the cost, benefits, and drawbacks of various placement methods; (3) demonstration of some sediment-placement techniques used successfully in other coastal environments; and (4) monitoring before and after conditions, particularly for sediments that contain greater than 10% fines. Several demonstration projects should be implemented to obtain information addressing the data gaps.
  • Innovations of Cellular Automata

    Purpose: In the past several years, there has been a rather substantial uptick in the amount of research within the realm of cellular automata due to its ability to produce complex, self-organizing behavior from simplistic rulesets. The capability to produce this behavior is essential to understanding artificial life and intelligence. This uptick has resulted in numerous novel directions for experimentation within this computational playground. This work summarizes a few of the most impactful directions that have resulted from this research.
  • ERDC looks to modernize flood models with levee vegetation index

    A multidisciplinary ERDC team is working to modernize widely used flood models such as StormSim and Hydrologic Engineering Center software by developing a vegetation index that more comprehensively quantifies vegetation stability on coastal levees. The index will incorporate an array of ecological measurements, such as root/shoot ratios, evapotranspiration rates, soil moisture, vegetation shear, root strength, and vegetation age, size and type.