Enhancing Communication about the Red River Valley Basin

After the Red River flooded in 1997, American and Canadian governments formed an International Joint Commission to analyze the cause and effects of the flood. The US Army Corps of Engineers® secured funding to create a centralized way for people to share and exchange information about the river basin, and they partnered with Houston Engineering to develop this tool. “Houston Engineering was a very good fit for this project,” said one staff member from the Corps. “We wanted a firm that knew the locals in the Red River Valley Basin. Houston was able to ensure we had good grassroots level support.”

The Red River Basin Decision Information Network (RRBDIN) project is now complete and the Web site is accessible at http://www.rrbdin.org. “Web-based mapping tools were critical and the Houston team did a good job pulling that piece together,” said the Corps staff member. “Now people without much GIS experience or software can work with spatial data sets. They simply go to the Web site to view lots of map data that couldn’t easily be displayed any other way.”

“We had a good experience working with Houston Engineering,” he said. “The team went above and beyond our basic requirements. I felt like we definitely got our money’s worth. They had a very high priority on quality work and making sure that we were getting what we needed and wanted.”

- Staff member of the US Army Corps of Engineers