Watershed Year: Iowa Flood Lessons Learned?
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March 10, 2010
DES MOINES, Iowa - Flood warnings have been issued across Iowa this week by the National Weather Service. While conditions are not expected to be as severe as the floods of 2008, the lessons learned from that time are up for discussion.
The conversation began at a Tuesday night symposium in Des Moines, where Kamyar Enshayan addressed the crowd. As director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Education at the University of Northern Iowa, and a Cedar Falls City Council member, Enshayan says they know what kinds of actions towns and counties should be taking to reduce future property damage.
"Planning land-use ordinances that would not put people in harm's way, in places we know for sure will flood."
Enshayan says emergency response systems to help those in distress are in place, although there is still work to be done to make the landscape function better for natural flood control - and that will mean teaming up with agricultural interests, he adds.
"Restoration of the floodplain, other land use changes that would make Iowa's watersheds more spongy - so that the water all over the watershed is absorbed where it's landed."
The symposium also marked the release of a new book, "A Watershed Year: Anatomy of the Iowa Floods of 2008." Edited by Cornelia F. Mutel, it features commentary and essays from scientists, engineers and economists and is available from the University of Iowa Press, http://uipress.uiowa.edu.