A vision for a more resilient Iowa

The Iowa Watershed Approach

Ashlee Johannes

Iowa Watershed Approach Flood Resilience Program Coordinator

ashlee-Johannes@uiowa.edu

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National Disaster Resilience Competition: $96,887,177Total of $1B from Housing and Urban Development Disaster Recovery Funds

Iowa Watershed Approach: A vision for a more resilient Iowa

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• Reduce flood risk

• Improve water quality

• Increase resilience

• Engage stakeholders through collaboration and outreach/education

• Improve quality of life and health, especially for vulnerable populations

• Develop a program that is replicable throughout the Midwest and the United States

Iowa Watershed Approach Goals

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What is Flood Resilience?

Flood resilience is the ability of a community within a watershed to plan and act collectively, using local capacities to mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from a flood.

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Increase environmental resilience through flood mitigation projects

Wetland

Oxbow Restoration

Pond

Prairie

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Increase economic resilience

Before flood

After flood

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Iowa Watershed Approach Information System

Interactive Flood Damage Estimations – Cedar Rapids

5 feet

$ 6,251 buildings$ 9,377 contents

Interactive Flood Damage Estimations – Cedar Rapids

20 feet

$ 4,425,603 buildings$ 6,530,594 contents

Interactive Flood Damage Estimations – Cedar Rapids

26 feet

$ 42,907,297 buildings$ 96,961,556 contents

Interactive Flood Damage Estimations – Cedar Rapids

33 feet

$ 121,866,836 buildings$ 304,646,623 contents

Flood Resilience Program Goals and Current Products

The IWA Flood Resilience Program seeks to:

• Measure, visualize, and communicate flood resilience resources

• Enhance flood resilience content in formal watershed plans

• Improve social resources for flood resilience

Current available products for select towns:

• Interactive flood damage estimations

Current products under development:

• Interactive Social Vulnerability & Flood Risk Platform

• Flood Resilience Action Plans

• Town-Scale Resilience Case Studies

Social resilience can be improved in all IWA watersheds

Social Resources are community characteristics that facilitate collective action. The ability to trust,

build partnerships, form social networks, and pursue collective learning are examples.

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“Lower-income people are among

the least able to recover, yet they are

often central to the economy and

culture of a community.”- THE INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSITION – INTERNATIONAL

Social vulnerability indicators help us prioritize actions

% Poverty

% Black % Renters

% Elderly

% Children% Unemployed

% Language barrier

% Disabled

% Low Education

% Female head of household

% Hispanic

% No vehicle access

Interactive Social Vulnerability & Flood Risk Platform

Social Vulnerability Overlay – Middle Cedar Watershed

Social Vulnerability at the Intersections of Flood Risk - Waterloo

Social Vulnerability at the Intersections of Flood Risk – Waterloo

100-year flood

Social Vulnerability at the Intersections of Flood Risk - Waterloo

1. Unemployed2. Renter3. No Vehicle Access

500-year flood

Developing a Flood Resilience Action Plan to facilitate connection of watershed plan and flood hazard mitigation planning

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Flood Resilience Action Plan

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Dubuque and Bee Branch Creek Watershed

Bee Branch Healthy Homes Program:

• Provide resources for residents to make home repairs

• Provide support to increase individual and social resilience

• Dubuque and Iowa Flood Center Resilience teams partnership = Social Resilience Assessment

Middle Cedar

Upper Iowa

Clear Creek

Detailed flood resilience case studies will be developed for each watershed

Current Case Studies• Freeport/Decorah• Vinton• Coralville

A vision for a more resilient Iowa

The Iowa Watershed Approach

A vision for a more resilient Iowa

The Iowa Watershed Approach

Iowa Flood Center

The University of Iowa

100 C. Maxwell Stanley Hydraulics Laboratory

Iowa City, IA 52242

319-335-5233

http://www.iowawatershedapproach.org/

@IWAReduceFloods