Short Courses
Summary
Smart Rivers 2025 will kick off with an opportunity to dive deep on a topic of your choosing. Half-day short courses, scheduled for either the morning or afternoon, will be offered on Monday, 8 September. Presented by experts in the field, these courses offer an excellent opportunity to learn, grow, and build your network in your field. Short Course registration will open on 16 December 2024.
Morning Courses
Morning courses will be held between 8:30am – 12:00pm CT on Monday, 8 September. Click through the titles below to read a brief description of each course and its instructors. Please check back on 16 December for additional registration details!
Sustainable development of infrastructure systems is an emerging priority worldwide, and recent U.S. policy directives favor implementing nature-based solutions. This short course will cover how science-based guidance can be used to shape and inform future practices in the development of sustainable navigation infrastructure and to promote sustainable development and the use of nature-based solutions for waterborne infrastructure projects. Participants will be able to advance environmental and other benefits when incorporating dredged sediment in navigation infrastructure.
Who should attend:
Regulators and environmental resource managers, project managers, environmental consulting engineers and scientists, and members of environmental interest groups would benefit from this course.
Instructors:
- Burton Suedel, Ph.D. | U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center; PIANC Environmental Commission Chair
- Victor Magar, Ph.D. | Ramboll; Principal U.S. Representative to the PIANC Environmental Commission
- Calvin Creech, P.E., Ph.D. | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Institute for Water Resources; PIANC Vice President
The planning and design of a navigation lock is a complex endeavour and involves multi-inputs, disciplines, and considerable time. Design is a complex, iterative process involving trade-offs with the objective of providing a safe economical project that meets the requirements of owners, users, and other stakeholders. The information shared cannot be achieved by any amount of research and development effort; rather, it is based on real world navigation experiences. This course will serve as a valuable resource to efficiently design, construct, and operate a navigation lock.
Who should attend:
This course will provide state-of-the-art knowledge that is applicable for navigation lock designers, engineers, operators, and authorities to draw on for infrastructure design, maintenance, and inspection.
Instructors:
- John Clarkson | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Ret.)
- Erwin Pechtold | Rijkswaterstaat
- David Monfort | Bureau Greisch
- Sebastian Roux | Compagnie Nationale du Rhône
- Timothy Paulus | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- Travis Adams | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- Eric Johnson | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- Charlie Thomason | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Twenty years have passed since the release of the highly popular third edition of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Manual 50, Guidance for Design of Small Craft Harbors. This is a topic of high interest since it is an aspect of port and coastal engineering not typically addressed in other Port curricula. This course will update the practitioner of the changes since the last edition, which mark a significant departure from previous guidance. This includes expanded guidance on trends in site layout, breakwaters, attenuators and berthing tranquility, yacht characteristics and maneuverability, mooring design, advances in dry storage, current electrical system design and code changes, and environmental and economic feasibility.
Who should attend:
Civil engineers, architects, planners, marine contractors, real estate developers, and marina owners (both public and private) will find this course and associated insights particularly valuable.
Instructors:
- Jack C. Cox, PE, BC: PE, CE, NE
Afternoon Courses
Afternoon courses will be held between 1:00pm – 4:30pm CT on Monday, 8 September. Click through the titles below to read a brief description of each course and its instructors. Please check back on 16 December for additional registration details!
This course offers a presentation and discussion of best practices for selecting and evaluating navigation channel sedimentation solutions. Drawing from new American Society of Civil Engineers Manual of Practice 156, participants will examine systematic approaches to identifying sedimentation remedies and evaluating them for effectiveness and sustainability. Best practices in numerical modeling evaluations will focus on selecting appropriate modeling programs and building, validating, testing, and interpreting numerical models to guide engineering decisions.
Who should attend:
Professionals involved in planning, designing, maintaining, and operating ports and waterways will find this short course most helpful, as will transportation students and instructors and sustainable waterway NGOs.
Instructors:
- Gary Brown | U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center
- Bill McAnally | Emeritus, Mississippi State University; Dynamic Solutions, LLC
- Nancy Powell | Arcadis US, Inc.
- Steve Sanborn | Dynamic Solutions, LLC
- Chris Wallen | Dynamic Solutions, LLC
Globally, nature-based solutions are increasingly used for streambank protection in navigable waterways, leading to a proliferation of guidelines and recommendations. A PIANC Working Group was established to collect and condense expert knowledge in this field. The corresponding report is split into three parts, which are covered in this workshop: Basics of a Best Practice Approach provides basic information about selecting and constructing Technical-Biological Bank protections; Library of Measures provides detailed information on recommended protections; and Decision-Support Advice guides practitioners through the design process.
Who should attend:
Decision-makers in waterway authorities, planners in engineering bureaus, river and ecological engineers, and ecological scientists will find this short course most helpful.
Instructors:
- Prof. Dr.-Ing. Bernhard Söhngen | Bundesanstalt für Wasserbau
- Jeroen Verbelen | De Vlaamse Waterweg
- Ing. J.G.M. Wieggers | Rijkswaterstaat
- Kyle McKay, Ph.D., P.E. | U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Hydraulic composite structures manufactured using primarily glass fabrics and vinyl ester resins are competitive on economic first cost with their steel counterparts, but do not suffer the same long-term degradation mechanisms in immersion service. A few technical barriers remain that inhibit widespread implementation of composites in marine infrastructure. This course provides a venue for participants to learn about, discuss, and get hands-on exposure to the use of composites for waterborne transportation infrastructure.
Who should attend:
Students, designers, high-level decisionmakers, and other industry experts will find this course (and the accompanying hands-on knowledge of composite structures) particularly rewarding.
Instructors:
- Hota GangaRao | West Virginia University
- Ray Liang | West Virginia University
- Philippe Rigo | Université de Liège
- Pete Stynoski | U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center
- Eric Johnson | U.S. Army Inland Navigation Design Center
- Jeff Lillycrop | Woolpert, Inc.