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Lapsed/non-members = $35.00

WEBINAR SUMMARY:
US Federal agencies agreed on uniform floodflow frequency procedures in 1976 with publication of the interagency U.S. Bulletin 17, updated to Bulletin 17B in 1982, and finally Bulletin 17C in 2018. In the run up to Bulletin 17C, an interagency workgroup (HFAWG) spent over a decade testing and developing new robust estimators. Important differences between Bulletin 17B and 17C are adoption of an Expected Moment Algorithm (EMA) that allows appropriate treatment of historical and paleoflood data, zero flows, censored crest-stage records, and “Potentially Influential Low Floods” (PILFs). Uncertainty analysis calculations were corrected. Recommended Bayesian regional Generalized-Least-Squares skew estimators indicate regional skews are more accurate that previously described; they are being developed for the whole U.S. The talk addresses technical developments, their motivation, and the perseverance of federal and academic hydrologists to work together to pursue needed technical developments and to have them eventually adopted for the U.S – from “mountains to the prairies to the oceans …” (Irving Berlin, 1938).

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

1. Be able to list reasons US government wants uniform procedures for Flood Frequency Analyses.
2. Ready to explain the differences between Bulletins 17B and 17C, and motivation for those extensions.
3. Can explain value of identifying PILFs (potentially influential low floods), development of EMA, and what they achieve.

SPEAKER:

Jery R. Stedinger
D. C. Baum Professor of Engineering, Emeritus
Cornell University

Stedinger earned a B.A. from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. from Harvard. In 1977 he joined Cornell’s Civil and Environmental Engineering faculty. He spent 2 sabbaticals with the USACE and 2 with the USGS. His research addresses water resource systems operation, hydropower, and statistical and risk issues in flood risk management, including use of historical, paleoflood, and regional hydrologic information.

Stedinger received the 1997 ASCE Julian Hinds Award, the 2004 Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water, and the 2014 ASCE Ven Te Chow Award for contributions to hydrology. He is a Distinguished Member of ASCE, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Jery served on NAE Committees addressing Flood Risk Management and advisory committees for to the US Bureau of Reclamation and the US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE). Notably, he was the only Bulletin 17C author who was not a federal employee. He retired from Cornell in 2020.

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