Photo By Ryan Labadens | John Fogarty, Bonnet Carre’ Spillway project manager, provides a briefing to...... read more read more
Delegates from the World Bank and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam visited with personnel from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers June 3 and 4, 2024, as part of the Vietnamese Delegation Study Tour: Nature-Based Solutions.
This visit is part of a larger study tour taking place June 3-10 and involves several USACE districts and divisions, including the New Orleans District, Jacksonville District, Mississippi Valley Division, the Pacific Ocean Division and USACE Headquarters. The tour serves as an exchange of best practices designed to showcase nature-based solutions for large river systems and provide more economical, efficient, and environmentally-sound water resources management in the U.S. and Vietnam’s respective river basins.
While here, the delegates received a briefing June 3 from USACE New Orleans District commander, Col. Cullen Jones, at the district headquarters building, and other district personnel, and then they visited the Bonnet Carre’ Spillway, which is a part of the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project designed to help manage flood risk in the Lower Mississippi River Valley.
Later that day, they visited the Davis Pond Freshwater Diversion, which is designed to provide a controlled flow of fresh water, sediments and nutrients from the Mississippi River to the Barataria Bay estuary.
On June 4, the delegates toured The Water Institute in Baton Rouge, La., an independent, non-profit, applied research institution advancing science and developing integrated methods to solve complex environmental and societal challenges. Discussions included a ‘Living Lab for Nature Based Solutions’ at Port Fourchon, and modeling, and processes and policies to implement Nature Based Solutions for social, environmental, and economic benefit.
After that, the delegates visited the Louisiana State University Center for River Studies, which conducts research on the world’s major rivers with a specific focus on the Mississippi River. It houses one of the world's largest movable bed physical models, the Lower Mississippi River Physical Model, a 10,000-square-foot model of the Mississippi River Delta covering southeast Louisiana. The delegates received briefings from LSU faculty and members and the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.
Over the past 15 years, USACE has actively engaged in initiatives like these aimed at sharing best practices in water management, disaster risk mitigation, and sustainable development in the Mekong and across the Indo-Pacific region to share insights on approaches on water resource management and ‘Nature-Based Solutions’ or ‘Engineering with Nature’.
These types of engagements help support the U.S.-Vietnamese Comprehensive Strategic Partnership through science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, and environmental diplomacy. They also contribute to community resilience while fostering peace, stability, cooperation and development across the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
“We are delighted to have had this opportunity to interact and exchange best practices with our guests from Vietnam and the World Bank, and we hope to have many more opportunities in the future to foster collaborations for exchanging knowledge about sustainable natural-resource and nature-based water management,” said Jones.
| Date Taken: | 06.07.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 06.07.2024 12:55 |
| Story ID: | 473367 |
| Location: | NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, US |
| Hometown: | NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 234 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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