SGER: Hurricane Katrina and Lessons for Prevention of Catastrophic Levee Failures Applicable to Other Similarly Threatened Areas in the U.S.

奖项：CMS-0611632PI：Raymond SeedInstitution：加州大学伯克利分校题目：SGER：卡特里娜飓风和适用于美国其他类似威胁地区的预防灾难性堤防失败的经验教训研究团队在卡特里娜飓风后的几个月里进行了一次由美国国家科学基金会赞助的现场调查(CMS-0553197)，成功地捕获和记录了与新奥尔良堤坝坍塌相关的重要易腐烂数据和观察结果。第一次SGER的意见包含在以下报告中(也可从参议院国土安全和政府事务委员会获得：SEED，R.B.，Nicholson，P.G.，Dalrymple，R.A.，Battjes，J.，Bea，R.G.，Boutwell，G.，Bray，J.D.，Collins，B.D.，Harder，L.F.，Headland，J.R.，Inamine，M.，Kayen，R.E.，Kuhr，R.，Pestana，J.M.，Silva-Tulla，F.，Storesund，R.，Tanaka，美国，Wartman，J.，Wolff，T.F.，Wootem，L.和Zimmie，T.(2005)新奥尔良堤防系统在卡特里娜飓风中的表现初步报告，2005年8月29日，报告第UCB/CITRIS 05/01，CITRIS中心，加州大学伯克利分校，2005年11月16日。这个新项目将继续收集易腐烂的数据，但将集中分析这些重要的实地业绩案例研究。随着国家目前正在对严重受损的新奥尔良防洪系统进行紧急重建，学习和应用卡特里娜飓风的经验教训到目前正在紧急修复的这些系统变得异常紧迫。然而，从长远来看，这些经验教训对全国乃至全世界的堤防系统也将是极其宝贵的。卡特里娜飓风期间，新奥尔良防洪系统多次出现故障，导致灾难性洪灾，迄今已造成1063人死亡，摧毁了美国一个主要城市和大都市区，造成的直接和间接损失估计在2,000亿至4,000亿美元之间。这是世界历史上代价最高的一次人为系统故障。从新奥尔良堤防系统的表现，以及从紧急修复和抽水排水被淹地区的经验中，有一些潜在至关重要的教训值得借鉴。在新奥尔良发生的几十起防洪系统失稳事故中，包括溢流冲刷、结构防洪墙和板桩防渗墙系统的脱撑以及由此导致的墙体系统失效，以及土堤的地下渗流引起的稳定性破坏。在材料、几何形状和其他设计细节上稍有不同的类似的附近防洪系统元件的成功表现，形成了鲜明的对比，是一个学习关键经验教训和提高我们对所涉及的各种机制的理解的独特机会。这项研究的结果将对未来这些系统的分析、设计和建设产生重大影响，不仅在新奥尔良地区，而且在全国范围内。最近在风暴径流、飓风频率和地震风险预测方面的进展表明，堤防系统比人们通常理解的更脆弱。在缺乏连贯的国家堤防安全计划(如国家大坝安全计划)的情况下，这一领域的研究也滞后，堤防系统目前代表着不可接受的国家风险水平，通常既缺乏记录，也缺乏了解。至关重要的是，我们必须从卡特里娜飓风造成的新奥尔良防洪系统灾难性故障中吸取教训，以便将来将其应用于减少我们国家在其他地区遭受类似灾难性灾难的风险。

Award: CMS-0611632PI: Raymond SeedInstitution: University of California, BerkeleyTitle: SGER: Hurricane Katrina and Lessons for the Prevention of Catastrophic Levee Failures Applicable to Other Similarly Threatened Areas in the U.S.The research team conducted an NSF-sponsored field investigation (CMS-0553197) in the months following Hurricane Katrina that successfully captured and documented vital perishable data and observations related to levee failures in New Orleans. The observations from the first SGER are contained in the following report (also available from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs: Seed, R.B., Nicholson, P.G., Dalrymple, R.A., Battjes, J., Bea, R.G., Boutwell, G., Bray, J.D., Collins, B.D., Harder, L.F., Headland, J.R., Inamine, M., Kayen, R.E., Kuhr, R., Pestana, J.M., Silva-Tulla, F., Storesund, R., Tanaka, S., Wartman, J., Wolff, T.F., Wootem, L. and Zimmie, T. (2005) Preliminary Report on the Performance of the New Orleans Levee Systems in Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, Report No. UCB/CITRIS 05/01, CITRIS Center, University of California, Berkeley, November 16, 2005. This new project will continue the collection of perishable data, but will concentrate on the analysis of these important field performance case studies. With the Nation now engaged in emergency reconstruction of the heavily damaged New Orleans flood protection system, there is an unusual urgency in learning and applying lessons from Katrina to these systems currently under urgent repair. These lessons will also, however, be extremely valuable over the long term for levee systems throughout the Nation, and throughout the world. The multiple failures of the New Orleans flood protection system during the Katrina event resulted in catastrophic flooding that has to date claimed 1,063 lives, devastated a major U.S. city and metropolitan area, and produced estimated (direct and indirect) damages ranging between $200 to $400 billion. This represents the single most costly engineered system failure in world history. There are lessons of potentially vital importance to be learned from the performance of the New Orleans levee systems, and from the experiences with emergency repair and pumping to dewater the inundated areas. Overtopping scour erosion, unbracing of structural floodwalls and sheetpile cut-off wall systems and resultant wall system failures, and underseepage-induced stability failures of earthen levee embankments are all represented among the several dozen flood protection system failures that occurred in New Orleans. Successful performance of similar, nearby flood protection system elements, with small variations in materials, geometry and other design details, represents a striking contrast and a unique opportunity to learn critical lessons and to improve our understanding of the various mechanisms involved. The findings of this study will significantly influence the future analysis, design and construction of these systems, not only in the New Orleans region but throughout the nation as well.Recent advances concerning prediction of storm runoff, hurricane frequency and seismic risks suggest that levee systems are more fragile than is generally understood. In the absence of a coherent national levee safety program (such as with the National Dam Safety Program), research in this area lags as well, and levee systems currently represent an unacceptable level of national risk that is generally both poorly documented and poorly understood. It is critical that we learn the lessons to be learned from the catastrophic failures of the New Orleans flood protection system in Hurricane Katrina so that they can be applied in the future to reduce our nations exposure to similarly catastrophic disasters in other regions.