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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
 
Program Assessment

Program

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Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention

The Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention activities include three programs??Watershed Surveys and Planning, Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations, and the Watershed Rehabilitation. They provide assistance to local sponsors to reduce flood risk, enhance and protect water quality, and improve water supply.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Adequate

This rating describes a program that needs to set more ambitious goals, achieve better results, improve accountability or strengthen its management practices.
  • One of the three programs, the Watershed Rehabilitation Program, is effectively targeted. USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) identifies dams that are in the greatest need of rehabilitation by ranking the condition of the dam and consequences of dam failure. This results in a "failure index" and "risk index" for each dam. NRCS funds only the highest ranked projects.
  • The watershed programs collect outcome-based benefits for each watershed project to identify impacts of the projects since they were initially established. The agency has devoted significant time during the past year to upgrade the watershed program databases in order to track performance, and to identify meaningful long-term and short-term performance measures.
  • Congressional dictates about where to spend program dollars removes NRCS's ability to identify, target, and fund priority projects for two of the watershed programs, the Watershed Surveys and Planning and Watershed Flood Prevention Operations programs. Congress consistently heavily earmarks (100 percent in some years) the Flood Prevention Operations program's appropriation.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Refining the new annual performance measures it has developed.
  • Establishing baselines for the agency's newly developed efficiency measures.

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