Edited Version of February 25, 1999 Transcript
Red River Basin Disaster Information Network Workshop

Information/Data Needs for Floodplain Management:
The Red River Basin Workshop Report

Presenters

Mr. Terry Birkenstock, USACE/IJC Red River Study

Mr. Paul Bourget, Department of Defense/GDIN

Mr. Robert Coullahan, Science Applications International Corporation

Dr. Slobodan Simonovic, University of Manitoba/IJC Red River Study

Moderator

Avagene Moore, CEM, Coordinator
Emergency Information Infrastructure Partnership (EIIP)

Technical Coordinator

Amy Sebring, EIIP Technical Projects Coordinator

[This transcript has been reformatted for readability. The original text may be found online.]

Opening Remarks

Avagene Moore: On behalf of the Red River Basin Disaster Information Network, I am pleased to welcome you to our first online workshop in the Red River Room of the Virtual Forum. It is our plan to have one of these per month, and we would be glad to take your suggestions for future topics.

I will give a brief summary of how we conduct these sessions, and then I will introduce and turn it over to our other participants. The formal part of our session will last for approximately one hour, and we will be posting a transcript for future reference. After concluding the formal part, you are invited to stay a little longer as your schedule permits for some informal, open discussion, that is not included in the transcript.

We will start off today with about 35 minutes of presentation, followed by a Q&A/Comment session in which we invite you to participate. When we get to that portion, I will be back to review how we handle that.

In addition to seeing the text part of the chat, this software allows live links which will display in blue in the chat window. We use them as "slides" and Amy Sebring will be acting as our slide flipper today. When you click on a blue link, the corresponding page will open in your Web browser. Note: after the first one, the browser window may not automatically come to the top, so you may need to bring it forward to view, by clicking on the browser's button on your status bar at the very bottom of your window.

We also request that you do not send Direct Messages to the presenters during the session, as it can become rather distracting and make it difficult for them to proceed.

Today we are going to present some information about a series of workshops that were held in the Red River Basin last summer, to gather input about what kind of information is needed to support all phases of emergency/disaster management. If you have not seen it, there is a brief description posted with links to the report. See http:// www.emforum.org/redriver/workshop.htm We suggest you wait and download the full report after the session if you are interested in reading it.

Introductions

Avagene Moore: With us today are some of the individuals who were involved with hosting the workshops and analyzing the results. Amy, Slide 1 please.

Slide 1

Avagene Moore: First, we have Terry Birkenstock who is involved with the International Joint Commission Red River Task Force Database Subgroup. Terry will be providing some background information today about the participants and the Subgroup.

Terry Birkenstock: Good Afternoon - welcome, everyone!

Avagene Moore: Next we have Paul Bourget with the Department of Defense, and he is associated with an initiative in the U.S. referred to as GDIN (Global Disaster Information Network). Paul will be talking about his involvement and some of the findings.

Paul Bourget: Thanks for coming, everyone!

Avagene Moore: Next we have Bob Coullahan, an Assistant Vice President for Preparedness and Infrastructure Protection with SAIC, (Science Applications International Corporation) who will be addressing the analysis.

Bob Coullahan: Good to see everyone here!

Avagene Moore: And finally, Dr. Slobodan Simonovic, the Director of the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Manitoba; also a member of the IJC Task Force. Dr. Simonovic will have some remarks regarding where we go from here.

Slobodan Simonovic: Hello, everyone.

Avagene Moore: And with that, I turn the program over to Terry to get us started with some background.

Terry Birkenstock: Thanks, Avagene. I'm going to provide a quick and broad overview of WHO WE ARE, and WHY WE'RE HERE. I won't go into any details about the Red River Basin Flood of 1997 - its still very vivid in everyone's mind and there is plenty of documentation about it elsewhere.

As we all know, this most recent flood event of 1997 caused extensive damage throughout the Red River Valley. By letters of June 12, 1997, the Governments of Canada and the United States requested the International Joint Commission examine and report on the causes and effects of damaging floods in the Red River basin and recommend ways to reduce and prevent harm from future flooding. Slide 2 please, Amy.

Slide 2

Terry Birkenstock: To assist it with this binational investigation, the Commission appointed an Advisory International Red River Basin Task Force. The Task Force members come from a variety of backgrounds in public policy and water resources management (A Task Force Member list and other Task Force documents can be found at http://www.ijc.org/boards/rrbtf.html .)

Terry Birkenstock: An interim progress report identifying measures that could be implemented in the near term to alleviate future flood damages was submitted by the Task Force to the Governments on December 31, 1997. The Task Force will report again to the International Joint Commission in the Fall of 1999 and in September 2000.

The Task Force's studies aim to provide insights, advice, useful data, and new tools for decision-makers such as those who plan, design, and implement flood reduction policies, programs and projects. The study is also considering what collaborative and integrated problem solving mechanisms are required in the Red River Basin. The aim is to facilitate opportunities for coordination and cooperation throughout the basin that will function and prove valuable long after the Task Force has finished its assignment.

In summary, the Task Force has defined specific objectives for its investigations as:

1) Develop and recommend a range of alternatives to prevent or reduce future flood damages.

2) Improve tools for planning and decision making.

3) Facilitate integrated flood management in the basin.

The Task Force has established three subgroups: Database, Tools, and Strategies, to conduct or direct much of the data collection, model development, program evaluation, and to prepare preliminary recommendations. Each subgroup has subject matter experts from the United States and Canada and each is involved in a variety of inter-related tasks. Slide 3 please, Amy.

Slide 3

Terry Birkenstock: A specific charge presented by the Task Force to the DATABASE SUBGROUP is to evaluate, assemble, and collect data to "ensure that all [relevant] data are accessible to all users in order to provide support for all floodplain management activities. An assessment of Information User Needs in the Basin was identified early on as critical to this effort. This led to the holding of the User Data Workshops in the Basin last July.

The Red River Basin Task Force recommendation to devise strategies to effectively integrate and manage disparate data and information types parallels the vision of the Global Disaster Information Network (GDIN). The GDIN is a multi-agency initiative (separate from the IJC study) underway within the U.S. Federal Government. Slide 4 please, Amy.

Slide 4

Terry Birkenstock: The aim of GDIN is to promote a more effective exchange of information and resources in support of disaster management. One way to reach that goal is to develop an information infrastructure (network) that is relevant to a broad stakeholder community. Thus because of these common interests, the GDIN and IJC Red River Basin Task Force began working together to leverage common resources and try to achieve this goal of relevant information infrastructure development that would allow for the integration of data, information, and knowledge in support of floodplain and flood disaster management.

At this point I'd like to turn the presentation over to Mr. Paul Bourget. Paul?

Paul Bourget: Slide 5 please, Amy.

Slide 5

Paul Bourget: Thanks, Terry. Once it was decided that an IJC/GDIN teaming made sense, we were interested in how best to get the various stakeholders (such as the groups you see on this slide) involved in a network development process. Amy, slide 6 please.

Slide 6

Paul Bourget: We decided it would best if we held a series of workshops within the Basin to solicit feedback on the various user needs. We distributed questionnaires and held some fairly lively discussions on both sides of the border.

Mr. Bob Coullahan can discuss how the various results were tallied. Bob?

Bob Coullahan: Slide 7 please, Amy.

Slide 7

Bob Coullahan: Thank you, Paul. Survey questionnaires were completed by many of the stakeholders during the three workshops conducted in the Red River Basin area in 1998. The questionnaires asked for users to identify their highest priority data and information needs. The responses to the survey were synthesized and assessed to determine the user's perspective on:

a.) the highest priority needs; and

b.) the frequency with which data and information types were cited in the survey responses.

Points were allocated to the high-medium-low priorities attributed to each data/information type by the users. The types were also prioritized based on their frequency of citation by the users. Together, the frequency of occurrence (1 through n) and the priority (1 through 3) were multiplied to create weighted scores for each data and information type.

In this scoring technique, a first order priority of need has been established. This can be used to drive data/information priorities in a future decision support system or disaster information network. I'll turn it back over to Paul to discuss the results.

Paul Bourget: Thanks, Bob. The workshops and associated questionnaires produced some very good results, which are now helping to provide the framework for the RRBDIN. Slide 8 please, Amy.

Slide 8

Paul Bourget: Some of the major concerns that we heard related to basin-wide management responsibilities, comprehensive planning, sustainability, relevance, timeliness and quality - all universal themes and all extremely important. These concerns were common to all three workshops. We left those meetings and started to think about how a theme-and region-based network might help address them. Slide 9 please.

Slide 9

Paul Bourget: This shows some of the key components that we envision for a fully operational RRBDIN. These will be refined over time, but it illustrates some of the things people felt were needed from a network. Slobodan also has some thoughts on where he sees this headed. Slobodan?

Slobodan Simonovic: Thank you, Paul. Amy, slide 10 please.

Slide 10

Slobodan Simonovic: Workshop results and analyses provided a necessary input for the further activities planned by the Task Force: development of the Red River Virtual Database and the Decision Support System. The main output of the workshop is the list of data providers and data users. Slide 11 please.

Slide 11

Slobodan Simonovic: From the identification of data needs we would like to continue the process of virtual database development. Some of the tasks are already completed or in process of completion (metadata). Development of database will follow through the IJC support. Through the coordinated IJC/GDIN effort the virtual database will be integrated with computer models being currently used or developed through IJC support and user interface which will support multiple flood management functions. Back to you Terry.

Terry Birkenstock: Thanks, Slobodan. We'd like to finish up the presentation with some concluding remarks from the presenters before going to Q/A. I'll start.

This Virtual Forum we are using today is one "TOOL" that workshop attendees told us they would like to see developed and would use if available. We would like you all to help us build this capability into something that will help foster communication and information sharing throughout the basin. Please provide any comments or ideas you might have for enhancing this Virtual Tool to the RRBDIN mailing list (redriver@emforum.org), to Amy Sebring, or to myself (see listing under the Directory on the RRBDIN Web Page). We hope you'll also give us some feedback in the Q/A session that follows.

A final comment: We appreciate the input we received during the Workshops and subsequently. As we mentioned in the Workshops last July, we will continue to come back to you for help in building and assessing the tools that you said you needed. This Forum is one way for you to provide that input.

Paul Bourget: We hope to experiment, via the RRDBIN concept, with other collaborative tools. So, please stay tuned and thanks for joining in all of you.

Avagene Moore: Thank you gentlemen. At this time we would like to invite your questions and comments, but I would like to explain how we handle it so that we can have an orderly discussion (and an intelligible transcript!) Please enter a question mark to indicate you wish to speak and send it into the chat. Then compose your question/comment, but do not Send until you are recognized by the moderator. When you are, then either hit the Enter key or click on the Send button. Please indicate in your question or comment to whom it is addressed.

We will continue now with your questions and take them in sequence. First question, please.

Question:
Amy Sebring: Bob, can you give us the top 3 or 4 items on the priority list?

Slobodan Simonovic: If I can help. The first on the list is timely and accurate forecast of water levels.

Bob Coullahan: The users priorities included snowmelt prediction, aerial photography, levees-elevation alignment, and high-water marks.

Question:
Tricia Wachtendorf: I noticed in Appendix D of the workshop report, the agency interaction listed is limited to/with state/province interaction and does not list interagency interaction cross-border. I realize these are reflective of answers provided to the questionnaires. Are you going to compliment this list to make it more reflective, and how will you go about doing this?

Paul Bourget: I'll field that one, if you like. I view this as a living document which will, in time, devolve into a needs assessment, pure and simple. Your input is critical and we mean to reach out to all stakeholders

Question:
Amy Sebring: I happen to know that Tricia is very interested in the cross-border issue, and we hope to get some input from her also but the GDIN is also particularly interested in this opportunity to explore cross-border coordination with the network, isn't that right Paul?

Paul Bourget: Send in your comments, by all means, Tricia. That's the main reason we entered into this partnership to gain a better understanding of the cross-border information exchange challenges.

Terry Birkenstock: Additional comment to Tricia --- We did ask on the Questionnaire, who each respondent was, who they interacted with in various phases of floodplain management. Perhaps we need to analyze that a bit more, because I think a lot of those interactions have been described for us.

Comment:
Bob Halliday: I know annex D captures some of the cross border contacts. One very clear IJC role is to view the basin as a whole.

Question:
Kay Hegge: What are we doing (have done) to connect with farmers? Anyone?

Terry Birkenstock: I can make a start. If you look at the workshop attendees, you will see there were representatives from many Watershed Districts and Boards, as well as individuals from throughout the basin. I think farmers are represented fairly well by some of those interests, but we're glad that you are involved with us now, because you can certainly help in that area. Your media contacts will be one way to get out a message, and as you told me, with 40† the farmers in your region now on-line, we hope they join us in this forum, too.

Paul Bourget: There's certainly no intention to exclude them as a group, but these are information technologies we are promoting here and their involvement is dependent on access to them

Amy Sebring: We certainly also hope to have as members those that do have immediate contact and the report does emphasize that this is also a rural problem, not just urban.

Slobodan Simonovic: And this is not the only ways to communicate concerns. IJC had and will have in the future public hearings in the valley open for anyone.

Comment:
Tricia Wachtendorf: Great and important question Kay. On a different note, just a quick FYI that might be of interest to some of you. One thing that came up in my research is the importance of coordination between highways, customs, and the commercial trucking industry. I think there are many ways this initiative could pose some real benefits for these groups in terms of information exchange during a flood.

Paul Bourget: Good point, again, Tricia

Terry Birkenstock: Yes that's very important, Tricia, and a big effort to tackle considering all the counties, etc. that need to be coordinated.

Question:
Kay Hegge: Tricia, could you expand on what you said?

Tricia Wachtendorf: Briefly, just that highways on both sides have to coordinate with border crossings and inform truckers of open roads, as the red river valley is a major trucking route, the US and Canada also have different road allowances for weight, which impacts rerouting.

Comment:
Bob Halliday: Just to add PTH 75 and I29 are the main route and were closed during the flood- the secondary highways were beat up pretty badly

Avagene Moore: Good input, Tricia. We will formally close our hour now but will take additional comment afterwards. Thank you, audience, for joining us today, for your participation, and for becoming members of the Red River Network.

On behalf of Amy and myself, we are very much looking forward to getting to know you and working with you. Amy will let all of you know about the transcript via the Red River mail list. This concludes our formal session, but if you can, we invite you to stick around a little longer for open discussion.