Jason Needham

Jason is an internationally recognized specialist in flood consequences and risk-informed decision making for dam and levee safety. With more than 20 years dedicated to advancing the state of the art in flood-risk assessment, he has led work in hydraulic engineering, consequence analysis, consequence management, and risk-informed design. Jason recently joined HDR as a Flood Risk and Consequence Practice Leader, following a long tenure with the USACE Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) and Risk Management Center (RMC), where he provided technical oversight for the national dam and levee portfolio and represented USACE in numerous agency, interagency, and international initiatives.

As USACE’s lead consequence specialist, Jason developed key methodologies such as HEC-FIA and LifeSim and authored guidance, documentation, and training that underpin modern consequence assessment practice. He helped shape risk-informed approaches across dam and levee screenings, semi-quantitative evaluations, and fully quantitative risk assessments. Jason co-authored the consequence chapter of the USACE-USBR Best Practices for Dam and Levee Safety Risk Assessments as well as the ICOLD Bulletin on Dam Breach Flood Consequence Assessment, contributing significantly to both national and international dam safety frameworks.