Since the US Congress first appropriated money in 1824 to improve navigation on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers by removing sandbars, snags, and other obstacles, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has been responsible for the development and maintenance of navigable inland and coastal waterways, ports, and harbors throughout the United States.
Safe, reliable, efficient, and environmentally sustainable waterborne transportation systems are a major means of commercial transportation. In addition, they are important to recreation and integral to national defense. To accomplish these responsibilities, USACE staff collect, store, visualize, analyze, and distribute huge amounts of navigation-related data.
The Navigation Data Integration Framework (NDIF), which forms the basis of the USACE Navigation Portal, is an effort to establish a detailed methodology to link data and tools across the Navigation Business line and make them easily available to our stakeholders.
Included in our navigation responsibilities is maintenance dredging of ten harbors on the Mississippi River. These harbors serve as vital links to rail and highway transportation systems in the region, helping to deliver products and commodities to and from global markets.