Print this page Vegetation Management at Levees, Floodwalls, and Dams
Mark P. Rossow, PhD, PE Retired
Course Outline
This course provides guidelines to assure that landscape planting and vegetation management provide aesthetic and environmental benefits without compromising the reliability of levees, floodwalls, embankment dams, and appurtenant structures. The dimensions of the vegetation-free and root-free zones defined in this document provide the minimum acceptable buffer between vegetation and flood damage reduction structures.
This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.
Learning Objective
This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:
- Learning about proper landscape planting: objectives and engineering requirements;
- Understanding the need for vegetation-free zone and vegetation-management zone;
- Understanding the areas of concern involving root impacts and root-free zone;
- Being introduced to the treatment of levees, floodwalls, embankment dams, and appurtenant structures;
- Learning about design considerations: feasibility analysis, planting berms, planters, irrigation systems, flood-fighting and structure maintenance;
- Learning the goals of maintenance of plantings, selection of plant material, and appropriate ground cover in the vegetation-free zone;
- Learning how to treat borrow sites, spoil sites, vegetation-related maintenance and repair, and operations and maintenance manual; and
- Deciding when removal of non-compliant vegetation is appropriate.
Intended Audience
This course is intended for civil and hydraulic engineers concerned with the design and maintenance of levees, floodwalls, embankment dams, and appurtenant structures.
Benefit to Attendees
Persons completing this course will be familiar with best practices in landscape planting and vegetation management.
Course Introduction
This ETL provides guidelines to assure that landscape planting and vegetation management provide aesthetic and environmental benefits without compromising the reliability of levees, floodwalls, embankment dams, and appurtenant structures. It is intended as a guide for safe design and not as a restriction to the initiative of designers. These guidelines should be used with reasonable judgment and practicality, tailored to the specific requirements and conditions of each individual project. The integrated design of landscape plantings and vegetation management at flood damage reduction systems requires a coordinated, interdisciplinary effort involving the local sponsor and the following disciplines: civil engineer, landscape architect, levee and/or dam safety engineer, environmental engineer, geologist, biologist, and additional related disciplines, as appropriate.
Course Content
This course is based on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Technical Letter No. 1110-2-583, “Guidelines for landscape planting and vegetation management at levees, floodwalls, embankment dams, and appurtenant structures,”April 30, 2014.
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Course Summary
This course provides guidelines to assure that landscape planting and vegetation management provide aesthetic and environmental benefits without compromising the reliability of levees, floodwalls, embankment dams, and appurtenant structures.
Related Links
For additional technical information related to this subject, please visit the following websites or web pages:
http://publications.usace.army.mil/publications/eng-tech-ltrs/
Quiz
Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.
DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.
