The International Levee Handbook
Chapter overviews

Jonathan Simm     Technical Director     HR Wallingford Ltd

Jonathan Simm is a Technical Director at HR Wallingford Ltd. in the United Kingdom with responsibility for developing technical capabilities in the areas of performance, risk, materials and sustainability. Mr. Simm has over 30 years of experience in civil engineering and joined HR Wallingford from consulting engineers in 1992 after an early career working with coastal and maritime works. Over the last 15 years he has developed new ideas and approaches for sustainable asset management, integrating engineering thinking and analysis about long-term and real-time reliability of defences with issues of deterioration and whole-life costs.

Jonathan acted as Technical Lead for the development of the International Levee Handbook drawing on more than 25 years’ experience in producing guidance documents for coastal and hydraulic engineering.

He is chairman of various committees, including the CIRIA Water Advisory Panel.

Michael Wallis      Senior Research Scientist     HR Wallingford Ltd.

Michael is a senior research scientist at HR Wallingford, a Chartered Water and Environment Manager, Chartered Scientist and Environmentalist and an Associate Member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment. He is involved in the development of performance and risk-based asset management in flood and coastal defence and in the sustainable use of resources. Over the last decade Michael has managed various flood and coastal erosion risk management consultancy projects, and has been involved in related consortia research projects in the UK and Europe. He has also contributed to a number of research dissemination reports and guidance documents for regulatory authorities, the construction industry and for flood and coastal defence asset managers.

Michael was the technical lead for Chapter 2 of the International Levee Handbook and was also part of the Technical Editorial Team. 

Jamie McVicker     Levee Safety Program Manager & National Inspection Program Manager     United States Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District

Jamie McVicker has more than 20 years’ experience in management on a wide array of civil engineering programs and projects, including studies, planning and estimating, design, and construction-phase services. Jamie has experience in project leadership including client relations, design, construction and business development. Manager of design, construction and pursuit teams on transportation and environmental engineering projects. Jamie holds a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from Southern Illinois University and a M.B.A. from Webster University.

Jamie was the joint chapter lead for Chapter 3 of the International Levee Handbook.

Yann Deniaud     Head of the Planning Division and the Department of Environmental Hazards and Risks Management     Cerema

Yann Deniaud holds a PhD in Earth Sciences and is head of the Planning Division and the Department of Environmental Hazards and Risks Management of the Cerema, the French Institute for Studies and Expertise on Risk, the Environment, Mobility and Development. Yann Deniaud is an expert on natural hazards (flooding, erosion, cavity, landslides, floods), Geotechnical engineering (geological reconnaissance, stability, foundations), hydraulic engineering (analysis and methodology) and hydrogeology (groundwater and stratum, resources and catchments).

Yann was the joint chapter lead for Chapter 3 of the ILH

Rachael Orellana      Civil Engineer     United States Army Corps of Engineers

Rachael Orellana was the International Chapter Lead for the Operations and Maintenance Chapter 4 of the International Levee Handbook. For the last 3 years she has enjoyed leading over 40 international experts to create this chapter. She works as a Civil Engineer with the Sacramento District Army Corps of Engineer.  

Rémy Tourment     Coordinator for research and expertise on levees     IRSTEA

Rémy has been working since January 1989 in Cemagref (now Irstea) which is a public applied research institute. His team is specialized in safety of hydraulic structures and has been involved in levees since the winter 1993-94. He has experience of working as an engineer in charge of computerization of the soil mechanics laboratory (test data acquisition and treatment); computer programs related to dams spillways; finite elements analysis calculations applied to dams; monitoring analysis of dams; and safety evaluation of many dams.

From 2000- 2009 Rémy started to work more on flood protection levees, including work on Irstea's levee management Information System, SIRS Digues, and on levee assessment methods. He was also responsible of the design and management of the National database on Dams and Levees (excluding Hydropower dams), BarDigues, on behalf of the French Ministry of Environment. From 2009 to 2013, Rémy acted as project manager or major contributor for various research projects related to levee safety and levee performance assessments including French project DIGSURE; EU project FloodProBE; levee risk analysis; and the International Levee Handbook. Since May 2013, he has been coordinator for research and expertise on levees in Irstea.

Rémy’s involvement in the International Levee Handbook including participation to the scoping phase; coordinator of Irstea contributions in the writing phase; TET member; lead for Chapter 5; and contributor to Chapters 2 and 3.

Yazmin Seda-Sanabria     National Program Manager - Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience Program     United States Army Corps of Engineers

Ms. Seda-Sanabria serves as the National Program Manager of the Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience Program, Office of Homeland Security, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Headquarters. In this role, Ms. Seda-Sanabria leads policy, technical guidance, and oversight for the development and implementation of a national risk management strategy for the protection, security, and improved resilience of USACE’s Civil Works portfolio of critical dams, navigation locks, and hydropower facilities. Ms. Seda-Sanabria holds both a B.S. and a M.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, and a M.S. degree in Engineering Mechanics from the Mississippi State University.

Yazmin was joint Chapter lead for Chapter 6 of the ILH.

Dr. Enrique E. Matheu     Chief, Critical Lifelines Branch Office of Infrastructure Protection National Protection and Programs Directorate     U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Dr. Matheu leads the national program for development, implementation, and coordination of risk management activities conducted under a voluntary partnership framework and aimed at improving the security and resilience of dams, levees, hydroelectric projects, and nuclear facilities as important components of the critical infrastructure in the United States. Dr. Matheu holds a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the National University of Córdoba, Argentina, a M.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, and a Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).

Enrique was the joint chapter lead for Chapter 6 of the ILH and also sat on the executive steering committee.

Dr Shaun Wersching Associate Geotechnical Engineer CH2M HILL

Dr Shaun Wersching is and Associate Geotechnical Engineer with CH2MHILL in the Peterborough office. He has been with the company for 28 years. During this time he has worked on a wide range of projects relating to transportation and flood defences, both in the UK and abroad. He has a specific interest in soft ground engineering which was honed while working on the construction of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Sepang, Malaysia, in the 1990’s. The ground investigation techniques used on this project included specialised soft ground rotary drilling to aid in obtaining high quality soil samples, and modified laboratory testing techniques. He introduced the principles of these techniques into the investigations programme for the Broadlands Flood Alleviation Project, UK, which is a 20 year Public Private Partnership Programme that started in May 2001. Over the past 10 years he has primarily been involved in the design and assessment the earthen and structural flood defences in fluvial, estuarine and coastal environments around the UK.  

Dr Roger Gaines      Regional Technical Specialist for MVD and Research Civil Engineer United States Army Corps of Engineers

Dr. Roger (Andy) Gaines is a Regional Technical Specialist for the Mississippi Valley Division and Research Civil Engineer with the Memphis District Corps of Engineers. Dr. Gaines received a master’s degree from Colorado State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri Science and Technology (MS&T). Dr. Gaines is also an adjunct faculty member in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, TN and in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Mississippi State University in Starkville, MS.

Dr. Gaines has an extensive career with the Memphis District having been in the Hydraulics and Hydrology Branch for 25 years. His primary areas of expertise are in the areas of hydrology, hydraulics, agricultural water supply and sedimentation. Dr. Gaines has utilized models such as HEC-1, HEC-2, HEC-6T, HEC-RAS, HEC-HMS, UNET, and HEC-5 to perform a variety of complex flood control, navigation and irrigation studies. He has taught undergraduate hydrology at the local university and PE review courses in the areas of hydrology, hydraulics, and groundwater.

In addition, Dr. Gaines is a registered Professional Engineer in the States of Mississippi and Arkansas.

Edouard Durand     Chief of a technical Group on Environment and Risk     Cermea

Edouard Durand is a experienced civil geologist and geotechnical engineer (ENSG, 1998). Projects geotechnical engineer in private contractor (ANTEA) during 3 years, he has joined in 2002 a technical Public office of French Ministry as chief of soil mechanism team.

He is now chief of a technical Group “Environment and Riks” and responsible for 4 years' of an innovation and competences centre “Knowledge on hydraulic structures and river morphodynamics” including specific hydraulic, bathymetry, geotechnical and geophysics equipment.

He was in the scientific committee of the sixth international conference on Scour and Erosion (ICSE) in 2012 and was co-leader from 2009 to 2013 in the International Levee Handbook (ILH) of the chapter 8 dealing with “physical processes and tools for levee assessment and design”. He is also co-leading for 4 years a French research programme dealing with erosions on earthen structures.

ENSG : Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie (National Higher School of Geology)

Guillaume Veylon     Research engineer -  head of the civil engineering for hydraulic structures      Irstea

Guillaume Veylon is the head of the civil engineering team in the hydraulic structure research unit of Irstea (National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture). Over the past decade, he participated to national and international research projects, contributed to a number of assessment and design guidance documents and coordinated expertise on dam safety for the French Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development. His field of expertise is slope stability, numerical modeling and soil liquefaction.

Dr Philip Smith      Director of Geotechnical Group     Royal HaskoningDHV, Sydney

Philip Smith is the director of Royal HaskoningDHV’s Geotechnical Group.

Throughout his career of over thirty years, he has had a continual involvement with geotechnical work at the water’s edge. This includes research work on the behaviour of earthen embankments built on soft ground (for which he was awarded his PhD), and extensive experience in the design of seawalls, reclamations, flood embankments and dams.

In 2003, Dr Smith supported the Environment Agency in the UK in the development of levee and was a co-author of the Defra/EA report FD2411 “Management of Flood Embankments: A Good Practice Review”.  This led to his substantial involvement in the International Levee Handbook (ILH); he was the lead author for Chapter 9: Design.

Dr Smith is a member of the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering Technical Panel TC201: Dykes, Levees and Reclamations.

Charlotte Spliethoff     Flood Risk Management Consultant     Royal HaskoningDHV

Charlotte started her role with the ILH at Grontmij in the Netherlands, where she also worked on over 15 projects covering the assessment and design of levees. Charlotte now works as a flood risk management consultant for Royal HaskoningDHV in Australia (Brisbane), where she takes a leading role in all Royal HaskoningDHV's activities in Queensland. Some of the current projects she is involved in are the Brisbane River Catchment Flood Study and providing (technical) advice to the Queensland State Government for the new levee regulation framework.

Joe Forbis      Civil Engineer United States Army Corps of Engineers

Joe joined the ILH team right out of college, graduating with highest honors from California State University in Sacramento with a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering. He has worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) since 2011, focusing on the inspection and evaluation of flood risk reduction projects, including levees and dams. Joe now manages the pre-flood inspection and emergency exercise programs for the 16 dams USACE operates in the Sacramento District, and he works with private sector hydropower developers interested in utilizing existing USACE dams to provide green energy to local communities.