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The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Collaborate to Develop Cutting-edge Hydrologic Software

December 7, 2006—With less than 2 percent of America’s rivers remaining free flowing, The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are working together to set new standards in water management. As part of the Sustainable Rivers Project, a national partnership to improve dam management on the nation’s rivers, the Conservancy and the Corps have created the Regime Prescription Tool (HEC-RPT), a computer program to assist in the development of ecologically sustainable recommendations for dam operations.

“The new software will be a tremendous asset in our work to promote ecologically sustainable water management practices,” said Andy Warner, senior advisor for water management for The Nature Conservancy’s Sustainable Waters Program. “Already, HEC-RPT is being considered for use in hydropower relicensing efforts in California.”

The idea for the HEC-RPT software emerged during a Sustainable Rivers Project workshop when nearly 50 scientists collaborated to formulate ecological recommendations for managing water flows on the Savannah River in the southeastern United States. During the process of developing recommendations, the need for a tool capable of displaying, adjusting, and documenting information, as well as accessing and plotting historical hydrologic data became apparent.
 
“Fundamentally, this software is about helping groups of people reach agreements regarding how to manage river flows,” said John Hickey, an engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Hydrologic Engineer Center (HEC).  “Its primary purpose is to facilitate efforts like those for the Savannah River, but globally, there are hundreds of other methods being used to define ecological flows for rivers. With its graphical displays and features to help users navigate hydrological data, an exciting aspect of RPT is its potential to complement these existing methods.”

Development costs for the software were shared by The Nature Conservancy, the Hydrologic Engineering Center, and the Corps’ Portland District. HEC-RPT is available free of charge to anyone who is interested.  To download a copy, please go to www.hec.usace.army.mil or nature.org/freshwaters

About the Sustainable Rivers Project
Begun in 2002, the Sustainable Rivers Project is a national collaboration between The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to  promote innovative water management practices so key ecological processes, such as fish spawning and forest regeneration, are sustained while human services like flood control and power generation continue.

“This national partnership represents a new era in water management practices,” said Warner. “By collaborating to ensure both healthy rivers and healthy human communities, The Nature Conservancy and the Corps are leaving a legacy for our children and examples of sustainable living for the rest of the world.”

The Sustainable Rivers Project is currently working on 11 rivers with 26 dams that flow through 13 states. Additional dams are to be added to the project in the future.