R3levee website organization
From R3levees
The R3levees web site organizes Provisionally Accreditated Levee (PAL) information for levees located within FEMA Region III. R3levees provides one place where FEMA, USACE, local communities and interested parties can share and access meeting notes, correspondence, official documents, media reports, maps, process milestones and related content. The site uses wiki software--like the Internet's Wikipedia--enabling representatives from this community of interest to directly add and update PAL project information.
Virtually any type of digital material may be added or uploaded to the R3levees site, including:
- Microsoft office documents (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)
- Adobe PDF documents
- Image files (gif, jpeg)
- Compressed (zip) files
- Links to other Internet sites
Content is a combination of structured data properties (similar to database fields), uploaded images/documents, free text information and links to additional resources both inside and outside the site.
The Bethlehem Project page for example, includes (among others) property values for the County and State where the Project is located. Official correspondence in PDF form, links to external newspaper articles, FIRM and historic maps, digital photos, meeting minutes and even an interactive Google map are on the Project page. A link to the Bethlehem hydraulic system page is provided as well. The relationship between Projects, Hydraulic systems and other R3levee site information elements is described in the Information Model section below.
Information Model
Levee information on this site is organized into four groups: 1) Places, 2) Projects, 3) Hydraulic Systems and 4) Hydraulic Segments, which are described below. Its helpful to think of these elements as a hierarchy: Places contain projects, which contain Hydraulic systems, which contain Hydraulic segments.
Places
Levee projects are organized according to the state and county where they're located. Projects are also grouped into their respective FEMA region and USACE district administrative areas. This provides a convenient method to quickly find and navigate to project pages for levees within a known area.
Projects
Projects organize PAL certification process efforts between a local community, FEMA and the USACE. One or more Hydraulic Systems may protect a community from flooding. Project specify which local and federal agencies are involved in the PAL process, whether federal dollars where used to construct the flood control measures and whether the project is part of the Rehabilitation Inspection Program (RIP).
Clicking Projects in the navigate box on the left sidebar lists all Project pages on the R3levee site. The search box provides a quick way to jump directly to a Project page if you know all or part the project name. You may start a new project page by clicking the Add project link in the add levee records box on the left sidebar.
Hydraulic Systems
Each flood control project has at least one Hydraulic system, made up of one or more segments (see below) that collectively protect one defined area. Failure of one segment will affect the whole system. Failure of one system doesn't affect other systems. Since flood protection depends upon performance of the overall system, PAL certification, milestones, FIRM mapping and level of project are tracked at the Hydraulic system level.
Clicking Hydraulic systems in the navigate box on the left sidebar lists all Hydraulic system pages on the R3levee site in alphabetical order. The search box provides a quick way to jump directly to a Hydraulic system page if you know all or part the system name. You may start a new Hydraulic system page by clicking the Add system link in the add levee records box on the left sidebar.
Hydraulic Segments
Each flood control hydraulic system is comprised of one or more Hydraulic segments. Segment are made up of one or more flood control structures, such as levees, flood walls and closures. Segments are defined by elements such as ownership, connectivity and flooding source. Information tracked at the segment level include: Owner, USACE Corps ID, river name, elevation, length and geographic coordinates.
Clicking Segments in the navigate box on the left sidebar lists all Hydraulic segment pages on the R3levee site. The search box provides a quick way to jump directly to a Hydraulic segment page if you know all or part the segment name. You may start a new Hydraulic segment page by clicking the Add segment link under the add levee records box on the left sidebar.
