The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will convene an ad hoc committee of experts to review the National Levee Safety Guidelines document. The National Levee Safety Program developed these guidelines to provide best practices and serve as a resource to help achieve nationwide consistency in improving the reliability of levees and the resilience of communities behind levees. The committee will review the guidelines to address:

• Whether key messages of the guidelines reflect current peer-reviewed literature and current understanding about observed and projected impacts of practices addressed, and if any critical content areas are missing.
• Whether the guidance is written at a technical level that is appropriate for the intended audiences (e.g., levee owner/operators; local officials, community members, and floodplain managers; emergency managers; private sector contractors; Federal, Tribal, state, and local levee safety organizations).
• Whether key messages and graphics are clear, consistent throughout the publication, appropriately reflect supporting evidence including assessment of uncertainties, and communicate effectively.
• Whether content regarding data and analyses provide for consistent, transparent, and credible conclusions and dissemination.
• Other significant improvements, if any, that might be addressed in the guidelines.

The committee will conclude whether the guidance document is presented in a transparent and credible way that meets the original intent and scope of the National Levee Safety Program. The committee will identify major gaps, if any, in the guidelines and recommend how the guidelines, as a whole, might be improved. The committee will also identify areas in which emerging research or technology developments might inform future iterations of the guidelines.