NACCS Study Enters Final Phase

A two-year post-Hurricane Sandy study led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to evaluate measures to reduce the risk of flood damage from coastal storms in the Northeast passed a milestone in June 2014, with the completion of a draft report.

Now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, North Atlantic Division, which was directed by Congress in January 2013 to conduct the study, is making final revisions to this draft report based on stakeholder input and expects to begin submitting the final analysis and associated products to its agency headquarters in October, officially advancing the study into its third and final phase.

The final report from this study, known as the North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study or NACCS, is due to Congress in January 2015.

“It cannot be overstated how amazing this team has been,” said Amy Guise, Chief of Planning at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District, who managed the NACCS team. “I continue to be honored to work alongside [them] in this effort.”

In Phase 1, the Army Corps’ NACCS team assembled experts and conducted working meetings and webinars in order to gather information, perform assessments, and prepare the draft analyses and associated products. The assessments and products of this initial phase included the following: storm suite modeling, state-specific coastal risk frameworks, storm economic impact estimation tool, sea level rise and vulnerability assessments and maps, and identification of risk and preliminary approaches for system resilience.

In Phase 2, which began in March 2014, the NACCS team conducted interagency and stakeholder validation and refinement of the NACCS draft analyses and associated products and ensured alignment with other regional plans.

The goal of the study is to advance coastal storm risk reduction strategies for vulnerable coastal populations in Sandy-impacted areas along the North Atlantic coast, while considering future sea-level rise and climate change scenarios.