Home / Media / News / NewsSearch

  • Striking a chord: District review appraiser and musician on being part of something bigger than himself

    The success of an organization often depends on having an effective support staff. An organization with a mission set as large and varied as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requires many support offices and positions. Among these many critical support positions at the Kansas City District is David Capell, district review appraiser. A team of one, Capell is the Kansas City District’s sole review appraiser responsible for appraising and reviewing appraisals of all district property. If it sounds like an important job, that’s because it is. With an area of responsibility spanning five states, the Kansas City District has a robust civil works and military mission, which require a lot of real estate. Before a project can be completed, there is almost always some sort of real estate action and many of these actions require an appraisal or review of one.

  • St. Louis District reminds visitors to practice water safety

    As millions of Americans plan visits to our nation’s lakes and rivers, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reminds visitors of the importance of practicing safe, sensible, and thoughtful activities in, on, and around open water. Tragically, people lose their lives while visiting USACE-managed lands and waters every year. Most of the tragedies are water related. The public’s help is needed to reduce the number of fatalities at the more than 400 USACE-managed lakes and river projects nationwide. USACE personnel stress the importance of water safety year-round when talking with visitors, but especially during the summer season because that is when most public recreation fatalities occur.

  • USACE awards Mill Creek Low Flow Project contract: construction to begin this summer

    WALLA WALLA, Wash. – On May 3, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Walla Walla District awarded a $5.6 million construction contract to Advancia Remediation Services, LLC to improve habitat conditions for endangered salmonids in the Mill Creek channel.

  • Admin professionals are ‘glue’ that lets organization stick to priorities

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. (May 9, 2024) – Administrative professionals in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are highly respected and known as being the ‘glue’ that makes it possible for work centers and the organization to stick to priorities and stay focused on national and regional missions.

  • New York District to Host Virtual Public Meetings for Interim Dredged Material Management Plan Update

    NEW YORK –The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New York District, is excited to announce its upcoming virtual public meeting aimed at gathering feedback on the Interim Dredged Material Management Plan (DMMP) Update for the Port of New York and New Jersey.

  • USACE to restrict alcohol use at Dam Site North Park

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Beaver Lake Project Office will begin prohibiting alcohol at Dam Site North Park in Carroll County, beginning May 13, 2024.

  • Huntsville Center Facility Reduction Program best in class for feds

    Huntsville Center’s Facility Reduction Program (FRP) received Best in Class (BIC) certification from Office of Management and Budget (OMB), with the support of the Government-wide Category Management Program Management Office in 2021.

  • Lower Monumental Dam closes public dam crossing May 13 through 21

    KAHLOTUS, Wash. – Officials at Lower Monumental Lock and Dam will be closing public dam crossings May 13 through 21 to perform maintenance.

  • Application of Multi-fidelity Methods to Rotorcraft Performance Assessment

    Abstract: We present a Python-based multi-fidelity tool to estimate rotorcraft performance metrics. We use Gaussian-Process regression (GPR) methods to adaptively build a surrogate model using a small number of high-fidelity CFD points to improve estimates of performance metrics from a medium-fidelity comprehensive analysis model. To include GPR methods in our framework, we used the EmuKit Python package. Our framework adaptively chooses new high-fidelity points to run in regions where the model variance is high. These high-fidelity points are used to update the GPR model; convergence is reached when model variance is below a pre-determined level. To efficiently use our framework on large computer clusters, we implemented this in Galaxy Simulation Builder, an analysis tool that is designed to work on large parallel computing environments. The program is modular, and is designed to be agnostic to the number and names of dependent variables and to the number and identifying labels of the fidelity levels. We demonstrate our multi-fidelity modeling framework on a rotorcraft collective sweep (hover) simulation and compare the accuracy and time savings of the GPR model to that of a simulation run with CFD only.

  • Coastal Breeding Bird Phenology on the Dredged-Material Islands of the Baptiste Collette Bayou, US Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, Louisiana

    Abstract: Coastal bird populations in North America have experienced significant population declines over the past four decades, and many species have become dependent upon human-made islands and other sediment-based habitats created through dredged material deposition. We monitored the breeding phenology of coastal bird populations utilizing dredged-material islands and open depositional areas in the Baptiste Collette Bayou in coastal Louisiana. Monitoring began in early May, prior to when most coastal species begin nesting, and continued through late August, when most breeding activity has ceased. Semimonthly surveys included area searches by foot and boat. Two deposition areas and one island supported large numbers of foraging, roosting, or breeding birds; surveys on these areas included using spotting scopes to identify species and count nests or young. Six islands and two open deposition areas were monitored. We also collected high-definition and lidar imagery using an uncrewed aerial system (UAS) in June, during peak nesting season. We recorded 77,474 cumulative detections of 68 species. Virtually all colonial nesting birds (terns and skimmers) nested on Gunn Island in 2021. We discuss these results in the context of dredged-material deposition by the US Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, and offer recommendations for management of these areas.