RESPEC Wins Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award
Sioux Falls, South Dakota The South Dakota Engineering Society (SDES) Eastern Chapter recently announced RESPEC as the winner of the 2018 Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award for the Big Sioux River Flood Information System (FIS) that RESPEC designed for the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources (SD DENR). RESPEC’s project was lauded for its technical expertise, ingenuity, and innovation that combined and improved technologies to predict floods, save lives, and mitigate damage.
The Big Sioux River Basin in eastern South Dakota can now be monitored by RESPEC’s FIS to predict the severity of flood events and implement appropriate countermeasures. The system consists of a hydrologic and hydraulic (H&H) model application and a web-based Flood Inundation Mapping (FIM) tool. The FIM allows decision-makers to predict river elevations and flood inundation under a range of stream flows and user-defined conditions at critical conveyance points in the watershed. Flow scenarios include analyzing alternative flows on critical tributaries and alternative flows on the Missouri River to understand the backwater effects of the Missouri River on Big Sioux River inundation.
RESPEC’s Mr. Pete Rausch, PE (Project Manager) and Mr. Jason Love, PE (Senior Vice President of RESPEC’s Water & Natural Resources business unit), were present to receive the award in Sioux Falls. “We appreciate this recognition for RESPEC’s work; it means a great deal to our team. We offer a big thank you to the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources for their leadership in sponsoring the project; the Big Sioux River Watershed communities for their insight; and to our team of local and national experts and partners, Banner Associates, Inc., and the Iowa Flood Center,” said Love.
The statewide SDES organization is led by President Ryan Johnson, PE, and Executive Director, Nancy Hoines. The SDES Eastern Chapter president is Mr. Lance Weatherly, PE. SDES is an affiliate of the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE).
The FIS is a flood-management technology achievement that is designed to meet increased extreme weather events throughout the US and around the world.
Founded in 1969, RESPEC is a global leader in geoscience, engineering, data, and integrated technology solutions for major industry sectors.
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