2026 Leveraging PFMA to Perform SQRA

Mr. Scott received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He started his career with the Bureau of Reclamation in 1976, where he worked for 34 years before joining the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Risk Management Center as Lead Civil Engineer, where he worked through 2018. He has been involved with design, analysis, and construction of dams and dam safety projects, as well as the development and application of potential failure mode analysis and risk analysis for dam safety. He served on several review panels for Bureau of Reclamation and Corps of Engineers dam construction and dam safety projects. He has authored over 35 technical papers in journals and conference proceedings related to dam safety and dam engineering. He is now retired from Federal service, but continues to consult on a limited basis. 

Bill has 42 years’ experience in hydraulic and structural engineering designs for concrete dams and appurtenant structures, with the Bureau of Reclamation. While with Reclamation, he served as a technical specialist and design team leader for numerous water resource projects. In the later part of his career, he served as a member of Reclamation’s three-person Risk Advisory Team, which was responsible for developing additional risk analysis methodologies and providing training for Reclamation.

staff. Bill has particular expertise in concrete dam and spillway modifications, including: project planning and design coordination; analysis and design of structural modifications; review of design drawings and specifications; construction support; and risk analysis methodologies and facilitation. He has written numerous papers focused on dam safety evaluations and dam safety modifications. He was a lead author on a Reclamation manual focused on drains for dams and on a FEMA manual focused on flood overtopping protection for dams. For the past two years, he has worked as a consultant in the role of senior technical advisor.

Mr. France has more than 40 years of experience in engineering consulting and design. Most of Mr. France’s technical work for the past 36 years has focused on dam engineering, and he has been involved in dam safety risk analysis for more than 20 years. His risk analysis work has included serving as a facilitator or subject matter expert on semi-quantitative risk analyses (SQRAs) and full quantitative risk analyses (QRAs) for such clients as the New Mexico OSE, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation Reclamation), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Denver Water, the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife, and Aqua Ohio. Mr. France has also completed assignments reviewing risk analyses completed by the USACE and Reclamation. 

His experience in dam safety risk analysis led to his selection as a member of a four-person team that developed a three-day SQRA course for USSD, presented for the first time in October 2019. In addition to his risk analysis work, he has served on senior technical review panels/boards for the USACE, Reclamation, BC Hydro, Brookfield Renewable Energy, and the Lower Colorado River Authority. Mr. France has developed a reputation as one of the leading practitioners in dam engineering and dam safety, which resulted in his selection to lead the six-person team charged with completing a forensic investigation of the 2017 Oroville Dam spillway incident. He regularly publishes papers and makes presentations for conferences of ASDSO, USSD, and ASCE, and he has twice received the prestigious President's Award from ASDSO for his contributions to dam safety. He also regularly lectures at courses on dam safety topics.

Nicole Novembre is a hydrologic engineer specializing in probabilistic flood hazard assessments (PFHA) for dam safety risk analyses. Her work focuses on developing hydrologic hazards for very low probability events using stochastic rainfall–runoff modeling and statistical hydrology, including applications with multiple storm types, complex reservoir operations, and uncertainty characterization. Nicole Novembre has over 15 years of experience performing probabilistic flood hazard assessments for dam safety risk analyses, beginning at the Bureau of Reclamation in 2010. During her time at Reclamation, she authored PFHA studies ranging from screening-level to design-level including studies for future climate conditions. She also served as the hydrology representative on Reclamation’s nine-member Risk Cadre, supporting issue evaluation and risk analysis efforts across the dam safety program. In 2018, Nicole founded Brava Engineering, providing PFHA and risk-informed decision-making support to dam owners and utilities across the western U.S. and Canada, including work supporting semi-quantitative and quantitative risk analysis workflows. She has served as a Hydrology Subject Matter Expert for FERC Level 3 and Level 4 risk analyses. Nicole has been an invited speaker for USSD and FEMA National Dam Safety Program training, and has presented on stochastic event flood modeling and incorporating climate change projections into hydrologic hazard analyses. Nicole joined RTI International in early 2025. She holds an M.S. in Civil Engineering and a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder and is a registered Professional Engineer in Colorado.