Partnership working demonstrates how opportunities and more solutions can be unlocked. Existing international collaboration has helped organisations in Europe and USA to improve flood risk management. This case study highlights how it may be achieved when managing levees (also called flood embankments).
USACE's Levee Safety Programme in partnership with levee sponsors to manage more than 1,600 levees across the U.S. that help reduce flood risk to people, businesses, critical infrastructure and the environment. This partnership working brings stakeholders together to understand the benefits and risks associated with levees, build awareness among the public, fulfill daily responsibilities on levees, and take actions to manage the future performance of the levee.
The Levee Safety Partnership, formed with the Dutch Rijkswaterstaat (Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management) and the U.S Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), have been working in partnership for over 100 years and renewed their Memorandum of Understanding in May 2019. It continues a cooperative relationship in the area of Integrated Water Resources Management. In association with the signing, the Rijkswaterstaat hosted site visits of flood and coastal risk management highlighting innovative practices, and technical meetings with experts in areas of common interest including knowledge management, asset management, and risk informed decision making.
Since 2012, the U.K's Environment Agency has also been working with the partnership which resulted in the publication of the International Levee Handbook, which offers international good practice on levees based on current knowledge and experience from six countries (USA, Germany, Netherlands, France, UK and Ireland) as a vital part of modern flood risk management. Without such levvees, many towns and cities would be uninhabitable without them.