Urban and Non-Urban Levee Evaluation Program

As Program Manager and Engineer (Prime Consultant), AECOM supported the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) legislative mandate to evaluate the current level of performance of the levees in the State Plan of Flood Control System in the Central Valley.

AECOM developed critical program guidance tools and implemented the largest levee geotechnical investigation and analyses program in California’s history. To allow multiple analysis teams to simultaneously implement consistent evaluations, AECOM developed the comprehensive DWR Levee Evaluation Guidance Document based on DWR’s Urban Levee Design Criteria document and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) criteria for levee design and construction. This provided a framework for the selection of levee study reaches and segments; use of material testing results; analysis procedures for seepage, stability, erosion and seismic susceptibility; procedures for designing conceptual remediation alternatives; and requirements for quality and consistency of approaches for all study areas.

The program consisted of two components: approximately 415 miles of Urban Levee Evaluations (ULE), and approximately 1,200 miles of Non-Urban Levee Evaluations (NULE), including levees protecting rural communities. The project was funded by DWR and co-sponsored by the USACE, Sacramento District.

Over 50 Geotechnical Data Reports were prepared that documented results of borings, CPT’s, airborne and land based electromagnetic geophysical surveys, lidar topographic surveys, bathymetric surveys, geomorphic mapping, and laboratory testing. All information was GIS-referenced and transferred to DWR’s website.

Photo credit: Central Valley Flood Protection Board