Wolf Writes on Water System Risks in The Military Engineer
Chuck Wolf, Freese and Nichols’ Assistant Division Manager in Southeast Texas, co-authored an article on solutions to address water system vulnerabilities in the July-August issue of The Military Engineer, the magazine of the Society of Military Engineers.
Using water supply disruptions during Texas’ damaging February 2021 winter storm as a backdrop, the authors discuss ways that preparations for high-impact events can be improved based on insights from expeditionary risk management programs used by NASA and the U.S. Air Force.
The authors wrote:
“Due to the expeditionary nature of both NASA and the Air Force, the overarching thought process behind any mission, program or project involves an ‘if this, then this’ mentality that considers all potential risks with plans to address them. Because of this, the organizations have a plan for all root cause risks and are prepared for worst-case scenarios with several layers of backup plans so they can execute risk mitigation at all times.
…
“Amid ‘top-to-bottom’ water operation reviews and the orchestration of many ongoing planning scenarios, the time is now to integrate NASA’s and the Air Force’s expeditionary risk management process with water planning and management, not only in Texas, but holistically across the country.”
Chuck wrote the article with colleagues from Texas A&M University, where he teaches in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Maj. Justin Baird, USAF, an A&M graduate student, and Lt. Col. Patrick Suermann, USAF (Ret.), Associate Professor and head of the Department of Construction Science.
Read the full article: Applying the Expeditionary Mindset to the Water Industry