We Know the Risk, We Know Our Audience, We Know Our Options – Now What?

Communication has long been an accepted tool of effective governance – enabling organizations and the public to have dialogue about challenges, opportunities, and solutions. Communication has also been a longstanding goal within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Dam and Levee Safety Programs. However, the success of communication efforts to date has been unclear. To better understand the state of communication, the Dam and Levee Safety Programs hired a team of external researchers and communication experts from HDR and Gannett Fleming to assess agency approaches for communication and opportunities to improve them. This paper provides a summary of the research, including why and how it was done, and recommendations to USACE on how to improve its communication in partnership with other federal, state, tribal, and local partners in flood risk management.