Presenter: Kevin Severson

Multnomah County Drainage District

After the 2007 flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina, non-federal owners of federally authorized levee systems were told their levees would no longer be recertified by the US Army Corps of Engineers and reaccredited by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Multnomah County Drainage District (MCDD) manages 27 miles of federally authorized levee system and undertook an elaborate process of levee embankment investigations and modeling to have their levee systems recertified by private geotechnical engineering consultants. Mr. Severson is a licensed Professional Engineer and has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Civil Engineering from Oregon State University. He worked on the levee recertification efforts in private practice and now manages the engineering team at MCDD. Mr. Severson’s presentation will include an introduction to geotechnical engineering and an overview of levee performance modeling.