Progress Energy Water Resources Seminars

CI-FLOW: A prototype total water system for forecasting inland and coastal flooding in Eastern North Carolina

1:30-3:30 pm, Friday, November 20, 2009
Jane S. McKimmon Center, NC State University

Abstract:

Since 2000, the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) has led a collaborative effort with NOAA Sea Grant Programs, Universities and National Weather Service Forecast Offices in the Carolinas to develop a capability to help improve flood detection and monitoring in coastal areas. This project, called the Coastal Inland FLood Observation and Warning project (CI-FLOW), couples a high resolution quantitative precipitation information system with riverine flood and coastal/ocean surge models. This initial effort is under development in the Tar and Neuse River Basins of North Carolina, where catastrophic flooding from Tropical Storm Dennis and Hurricane Floyd affected the area ten years ago.

The collaborative nature of the CI-FLOW project produces a unique inter-disciplinary partnership between several NOAA agencies and universities. The project goals include delivering automated precipitation estimates, advanced hydrologic and estuary modeling, and ultimately improved forecasts of storm surge and flooding. The tools and products created from CI-FLOW are being designed to benefit weather forecasters, emergency managers, water resources managers and ultimately the potential victims of flooding.

The UNC Chapel Hill Institute of Marine Sciences and the Renaissance Computing Institute have been collaborating with the CI-FLOW group since 2008 to provide the coastal/ocean surge modeling capability using the ADCIRC coastal circulation and storm surge model. ADCIRC is capable of generating high resolution results in the near shore and onshore (potential flooding) regions and has been configured specifically for hurricane related operations in the Gulf of Mexico and North Carolina coast.

The seminar will include a brief history of Project CI-FLOW, an overview of the components of the coupled model system including the ADCIRC model, the current overall status of CI-FLOW as it prepares for a real time test, and future directions of the project.

This seminar is free and open to the public. Registration is not required. WRRI will offer 1 Professional Development Hour (PDH) for engineers and surveyors that attend the event.

NOTE: WRRI will be offering a LIVE Webinar where participants will be able to watch the seminar via a computer with speakers. This will be limited to 60 participants. If you are interested, please email Anna Arnold and give her your name and email address. If you participate in the webinar, WRRI will NOT be able to offer the 1 PDH for engineers and surveyors.

1:30-3:00 pm, Thursday, April 16, 2009
Jane S. McKimmon Center, NC State University

Speaker:
Chuck Clarke
Chief Executive Officer of Cascade Water Alliance
Cascade Water Alliance is a consortium of eight municipalities and water districts in the Puget Sound region of Washington. The consortium is embarking on a major regional planning process to best determine how to bring water to 370,000 residents and 22,000 businesses over the next several decades.

The 21st century is proving a significant challenge for Utility Managers. We are all dealing with issues such as:

The question is how best to manage these challenges. What kinds of tools are available to assure the utilities are making the best decision for all their ratepayers?

In this presentation Mr. Clarke will give some examples that should help utilities navigate this road of uncertainty. These examples will include how to use asset management to address the question of aging infrastructure, how to do demand and supply planning and management to plan for future growth, how to manage rates and affordability, and finally examples of how to pull this together in a logical way so that it can be understood by decision makers. Examples of pitfalls to avoid as utilities move forward will be given.

This seminar is free and open to the public. Registration is not required.
WRRI will offer 1 Professional Development Hour (PDH) for engineers and surveyors that attend the event.

Sheila M. Olmstead
Associate Professor of Environmental Economics
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

"After a two-year drought in the late 1970’s, the city of Tucson, Arizona, was the first U.S. City to adopt marginal-cost water prices, which involved a substantial price increase. One year later, the entire Tucson city council was voted out of office due to the water rate increase.”

When water suppliers need to reduce demand to cope with drought or supply constraints brought on by population growth, should they “ration” water by regulating use, provide incentives for water-saving devices, use a combination of regulations and incentives - or simply use prices to allocate the scarce resource? Which is most cost-effective? Which can produce the most predictable reductions? Which is easiest to monitor and enforce? Which is the fairest to all water users? And, if using prices is the best choice, how can elected officials deal with the unpopularity of increasing water rates?

Join us on November 14, as Dr. Sheila Olmstead discusses the study that she and her co-investigator, Robert Stavins of Harvard University, performed to answer these and other questions.

This seminar is free and open to the public. Registration is not required.
WRRI will offer 1 Professional Development Hour (PDH) for engineers and surveyors.

1:30-3:30 pm
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Jane S. McKimmon Center, NC State University

The Southeastern Water World: Where Are We, How Did We Get Here, & Where Are We Going?
James E. Kundell, PhD
Professor Emeritus
University of Georgia Carl Vinson Institute of Government

Water Management Law in North Carolina, 2008 – Present and Prospective
Milton S. Heath, Jr.
Professor of Public Law and Government
UNC Chapel Hill School of Government

WRRI will offer 2 Professional Development Hours (PDHs) for engineers and surveyors.

Dr. Upmanu Lall, Columbia University
4:00 pm, Monday, October 15, 2007
Jane S. McKimmon Center, NC State University

Dr. Upmanu Lall is the Alan and Carol Silberstein Professor of Engineering, associated with both the Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering, and the Department of Civil Engineering & Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University. He is also Senior Research Scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, which is part of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

Dr. Lall received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas in 1981. Prior to joining Columbia University, he was a professor for the University of Utah and Utah State University. He has over 20 years of experience as a hydrologist. Lall's principal areas of expertise are statistical and numerical modeling of hydrologic climatic systems and water resource systems planning and management.

Abstract:
Capacity provision, design and expansion in engineering systems have always recognized that water and energy demands and source mix may change with time. Infrastructure siting, scheduling and operation models have been formulated to address this situation with considerations of reliability and stochastic water and energy demands as well as water/hydropower supply. As we consider climate change adaptation, we recognize that the stochastic models used may need change as we consider nonstationarity in the climate and its influence on both supply and demand. The nonstationarity arises from both inter-annual, decadal and longer natural climate variations and from anthropogenic factors. A modeling framework under which these factors can be considered for use in system design is discussed with some examples.

WRRI will offer 1 Professional Development Hour (PDH) for engineers and surveyors.

Hosted by WRRI and Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, NC State University