LEVEE BASICS
Levee Resources
The following materials and tools can help those responsible for levees with routine activities such as planning for flood-related emergencies, completing plans for operations and maintenance, and collecting timely data. If you have questions or ideas on additional resources you’d like to see, please contact us by emailing HQ-LeveeSafety@usace.army.mil.
Operations and Maintenance Manual Template
Operations and maintenance manuals provide detailed guides on levees and their parts and best practices for keeping them in good order. A good manual supports routine maintenance and the reliability and durability of the levee system. This template can be used to develop new or update existing manuals.
Emergency Action Plan Template
Emergency action plans support advanced planning for levee-related flood emergencies and help those involved in immediate response know who is involved and what must be done to minimize loss of life and damage to property. This template can be used to develop a standalone or supplement an existing document.
Flood Fight Techniques for Levees
While flood events can test and stress levees, some actions can be taken to improve their safety and reliability during the event. These actions are often referred to as flood fighting. This document includes best practices for planning before a flood and taking actions to preserve safety of staff and the levee during the event.
Levee Cost Estimating Tool
Prioritizing work on levees is often necessary, particularly when resources are limited. To make informed levee management decisions, as well as plan for future investments, it is important to understand costs associated with a levee activity. The Levee Cost Estimating Tool helps users with this understanding by providing high-level ranges of costs (e.g., Class 4 or 5) for common levee-related construction, operation and maintenance, and flood fight activities.
Levee Inspection System (LIS)
This tool can be used on mobile devices to capture data during visual inspections of levees to monitor their condition. The LIS has three modules:
- A module to complete detailed inspections and document site visits
- A module to collect data during a flood fight
- A module to collect field information for use with the Levee Screening Tool
Data captured with the LIS is securely saved in the National Levee Database (NLD), with access and visibility restricted based on user permissions. Contact the NLD Helpdesk at NLD@usace.army.mil to get information on how to access the LIS. An NLD user account with the appropriate user permissions for a levee is required to use the LIS.
