Director's Comments 2026

Hello friends of the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) and welcome to the Summer 2026 newsletter. It's been a while since our last newsletter, and a great deal has happened across the federal government in the meantime. The rapid pace of change brought new priorities and direction to HEC. It made us reflect on our role as a designated U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Technical Center of Expertise and how best to support the USACE mission in a changing environment. Now in midyear 2026, we have much greater clarity on the direction set for USACE and are working hard to provide USACE district staff with the tools and training that will help deliver on the mission.

In early 2026, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam R. Telle announced a major initiative for the Army’s Civil Works program: Building Infrastructure, Not Paperwork (BINP). Under BINP, USACE Districts are being asked to deliver critical infrastructure as efficiently as possible. That direction aligns closely with HEC’s mission, which has remained consistent since HEC was founded in 1964: to support and enable USACE district staff to accomplish their work. Being of service to the districts during a period of significant change is especially rewarding, and with change comes an opportunity for HEC to provide even greater value to the USACE mission.

The articles in this issue reflect our focus on supporting the field as they deliver the BINP initiative, with an overview of new tools and research from each of the four HEC technical divisions that will enable districts to accomplish their work more efficiently. In the hydrology space, we describe a number of enhancements released in HEC-HMS Version 4.13, along with a new tool coming in HEC-HMS Version 4.14, SnowPAC, which improves the process of estimating snowmelt modeling parameters. In the research realm, we explore how machine learning methods can complement our process-based models, from parameter estimation to streamflow forecasting - the research is exciting and promises faster, higher-quality flow forecasts. In addition, a 4-year federal research project on Mixed Populations is drawing to a close. The results of this joint effort between FEMA, USGS and USACE will greatly improve flood frequency estimation in regions in the United States that are exposed to flood risks from multiple different causal mechanisms, such as atmospheric rivers, tropical cyclones, and rain-on-snow events.

On the hydraulics front, HEC-RAS hit a tremendous milestone with the final release of HEC-RAS 7.0 (i.e., "HEC-RAS Classic") and a 100% shift in development focus to our next generation software, RAS2025. This issue also features new quasi-3D secondary flow capabilities released in HEC-RAS Version 6.6 that finally allow users to model river-bend velocities correctly for much better estimates of erosion and deposition, and describes a new 2D bridge scour tool released in HEC-RAS Version 7.0 that aligns HEC-RAS analyses with the latest Federal Highway Administration guidance.

This newsletter also includes several articles about noteworthy strides in our reservoir modeling and water management software. HEC-ResSim Version 4.0 was released in September 2025. This release marks the end of the beginning of our DevOps software journey, which we started in earnest in August 2020 (see this article for the history of DevOps at HEC). HEC-ResSim is our final large-scale software tool to migrate to a modern software development infrastructure, and this DevOps approach enables us to fix bugs and deliver new features within weeks or months instead of years. The other significant milestone in the HEC-ResSim Version 4.0 release is the addition of reservoir water quality modeling capabilities. On the water management data front, we share FAQs about the sunset of HEC-DSS Version 6 and the necessary migration to HEC-DSS Version 7.

In addition to software development, a significant focus at HEC over the last year has been maximizing the value delivered on the investment of taxpayer dollars. We have two articles that illustrate the tangible value HEC delivers to USACE staff and to the nation: one on CWMS Value Added and one on HEC Return on Investment. I hope you will be as pleasantly surprised as I was at the sheer volume of support HEC delivered between 1 October 2025 and 30 June 2026 - this is our first time quantifying our direct support to the field across the Center, and it is impressive.

Finally, we share a preview of our Fiscal Year 2027 PROSPECT classes and we recognize the teammates who have come and gone from HEC since our last newsletter. We miss those who have retired, but we have also enjoyed getting to know the newest members of the team. HEC continues to employ dedicated, creative and collaborative staff who make HEC a really fun place to come to work every day. We are also very appreciative of our USACE, federal, state and local partners and customers - we wouldn't be here without you.

Lea Adams, P.E., BC.WRE
Director