Presentation to the Selection Committee for the Broward County 100-year Flood Mapping and Modeling Project September 27, 2017 HIGGINS ENGINEERING, INC.
1. Key Team Members
Robert W. Higgins, PE – President of Higgins Engineering, Inc. Mr. Higgins has over 30 years professional civil and water resource engineering experience in south Florida. He founded this company based on his recognition of the need for a small business that can meet the needs of property owners, small and large, and government agencies that require quick and responsive advice and assistance with water resource problems.
Charles Alan Hall, PE, D.WRE Mr. Hall has over 40 years of public and private experience leading small and large organizations in the management of water resource systems. He led the Operations and Maintenance functions of the South Florida Water Management District during floods and droughts and developed the agency’s operations manuals for both hydrologic extremes. He led the south Florida recovery efforts after Hurricane Andrew and advised the U.S. Army on the design and construction of the restoration works of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. He is known as a hands-on manager with an international reputation in water resources engineering.
Richard S. Tomasello, PE, CFM Mr. Tomasello has over 45 years of engineering experience in South Florida. During that time he has worked in water resources and modeling to direct engineering solutions to an array of problems in the public and private sector. He is well-known for his technical work on tidal impacts during hurricanes and the linkages with riverine flooding in coastal systems. He has authored several hydrologic, hydraulic, and hydrodynamic models that have been used in coastal and riverine flood studies, wetland restoration and preserve studies, permitting of water management facilities, and water resource investigations. He has directed FEMA flood studies of Collier, Lee, and Palm Beach Counties.
Dr. Panigrahi has more than 30 years of experience in projects involving civil infrastructures including hydrology and hydraulics, design and permits (canal, reservoir, weir, pond, construction plans- permits-performance, engineering during construction), and geotechnical and structural engineering (seepage and stability analyses, levee, earthen and sheet pile cofferdam, shoring). Completed NSM and FCM scenarios using MIKE SHE/11 software to simulate the pre-development conditions (Pre-1950 conditions) and future no-action conditions (future “without project” conditions for 2050), respectively. The model included a 274x274 square grid and a three-layer ground water system over an area of about 3,273 sq mi for the SFWMD.
Higgins CBE Team Partners Tobon Engineering – Maurice Tobon has 27 years of engineering experience in South Florida, 19 years of which in local government. Worked for 10 years at City of Fort Lauderdale and was involved with various high profile projects which required public input and acceptance. Involved with public workshops and community meetings. Premier Design Solutions – On a relevant project assignment for the South Florida Water Management District – The FEMA Map Modernization Project – PDS was responsible for the project management of this FEMA flood insurance rate map modernization (Map-Mod) program for the District. Responsibilities of PDS staff included program oversight, grants management, inter-agency coordination and outreach to local governments and local flood plain managers. PDS also has extensive survey and topographic mapping experience.
2. Brief Review of Project Approach Communicate, Communicate, Communicate! Data Identification, validation, gap analyses, collection Model Selection, Testing, Calibration Key Assumptions – Land Use, Topography, Water Management Facilities, Future Scenarios, Incorporation of Sea-Level Rise
3. Identify Needs for Model Improvements We will brainstorm with the County Staff on the performance problems they currently face related to the existing model; we will execute the model with calibration runs, performance runs, try to implement the necessary updates and run the documented scenarios. We will then compare the outputs with existing results for each run and with each other to analyze the model consistency and resiliency. The level of outliers will indicate the need for modeling improvements.
4. Method to Validate Improvements in the Process Repeat the same as in item #3 and re-compute the outliers to develop a trend in the outliers, which will demonstrate the level of improvement based on the decreasing trend of outliers.
5. How to Address Non- Stationarity in the Process and in IDF Curves Non-stationarity primarily arises from the hydro- meteorological input data sets such as a) rainfall distribution, b) ET, c) flow records and d) stages. Higgins has conducted sensor optimization studies and sensor network designs for ET parameters for the entire SFWMD jurisdiction including those in Broward County using geostatistical tools. The stage and flow records for all inland structures in the SFWMD were also evaluated to reduce the uncertainty in flow computations. We will extend the uncertainty analysis of the input datasets, as appropriate, for the current project.
6. What Unique Tools and Utilities Will be Used - GeostatisticalTools for pre-processing the input datatsets to perform uncertainty analysis - Utilities to transform the model output to DFIRM (in accord with the ArcGIS processes) - Post-processing tools/utilities to link the MIKE SHE/11 model to external analyses such as coastal analysis for beach erosion control and/or nourishment -We intend to keep the main engine (MIKE SHE/11) unmodified to maintain its integrity and external compatibility and transportability.
7. Explain Your Use of the Community Outreach Process in Product Process This brings us back to Number 2 – Project Approach – ”Communicate, Communicate, Communicate”. Palm Beach County Flood Mapping Project – Started with Meetings with County Staff, then Stakeholders, formed Peer Review Committee (PRC), held PRC meetings to review progress and every major decision (held 30+ PRC meetings. Result was that at the end of the process the product received total endorsement by all stakeholders and PRC members. Selected Peer Review Members were professional individuals who represented the individual municipalities and community action groups.
Higgins Engineering Team The products that are being requested in this RFB are basic to the establishment of development standards for future land uses. Though the modeling tasks appear large, they are consistent with normal hydrologic and hydraulic analyses. We believe that approaches which involve knowledgeable professionals who have previous experience with this type of products do not have to be overly complicated and should be explainable to the stakeholders who depend on the product.
Focus on the Outcomes
QUESTIONS? QUESTIONS?
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