Clean Water, Flood Mitigation

The City of Monona, a member of the Turkey River Watershed Management Authority, has been approved to move forward with a project to redirect storm water runoff associated with the Monona City Aquatic Center. The funding was secured through a new program related to Iowa’s State Revolving Fund (SRF).  Monona applied to SRF in July of 2013 and received final approval in October. … Read more ›

Uncategorized

Due to severe weather forecasts in northern Iowa, the NASA and Iowa Flood Center public outreach event scheduled for Wednesday, June 12 at 7 p.m. in Room 104, Wilder Business Center, on the Northeast Iowa Community College campus has been CANCELLED.

NASA researchers will be occupied at research sites tracking the storm and monitoring instrumentation.

For more information about NASA and the Iowa Flood Center, visit the following sites:

pmm.nasa.gov/ifloods… Read more ›

IFloodS

Access Rainfall and Soil Moisture/Temperature Data using the Iowa Flood Information System and any of the following three methods

METHOD 1 (Step by step instructions)
  1. Visit http://iowafloodcenter.org
  2. Launch IFIS >> http://ifis.iowafloodcenter.org/ifis/en/
  3. Click Launch IFIS (View Screenshot)
  4. From the dashboard, click LAUNCH in the STATE OVERVIEW tab. (View Screenshot)
  5. Click Rain/Soil Moisture Gauges under the DATA RESOURCES tab. 
… Read more ›
IFloodS

Finding a location for two of the four University of Iowa XPOL radars was easy. They will remain at their current home base locations near Iowa City and Cedar Rapids overlooking the Clear Creek Watershed for the IFloodS campaign.  For the other two destined for the Turkey River basin in northeast Iowa — well, there was work to be done.

As is typical, finding the “ideal” radar locations proved to be challenging. … Read more ›

Uncategorized, Watershed Management Authority

West Union’s green pilot streetscape project and partnership with the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) will be featured on an educational television program, “Profiles Series” with host Larry King, on Monday, May 6, 2013 at 6:00 am on the Discovery Channel. The half-hour program will include other feature segments and commentary by host Larry King from the studio. A production team gathered footage in West Union on November 1, 2012.… Read more ›

Flood Mitigation, Watershed Management Authority

GUNDER —Ron McCartney wears several hats with the Turkey River Watershed Management Authority. He is WMA secretary/treasurer, a Clayton County supervisor, and he farms land impacted by Turkey River flooding.

“This is completely different than anything we’ve done in the past,” said McCartney. “We’ve had a lot of water quality projects in this area, but this is the first time someone is taking a shot to see if it’s possible to affect water flow.… Read more ›

Flood Mitigation, Watershed Management Authority

The Turkey River Watershed Management Authority is working on a five-year pilot demonstration project with IIHR – Hydroscience & Engineering at the University of Iowa and the Iowa Flood Center.

The project’s goal is to create state-of-the-art hydrological modeling of the water flowing through the Turkey River Watershed, said Lora Friest, executive director of Northeast Iowa RC&D in Postville.

The Iowa Flood Center has put its own stream stage sensors at 11 locations in the watershed and at other locations.… Read more ›

Uncategorized

West Union’s green pilot streetscape project and partnership with the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) will be featured on an educational television program, “Profiles Series” with host Larry King, on Monday, May 6, 2013 at 6:00 am on the Discovery Channel. The half-hour program will include other feature segments and commentary by host Larry King from the studio. A production team gathered footage in West Union on November 1, 2012.… Read more ›

Uncategorized

Engineers at Oregon State University have developed a new interactive planning tool to create networks of small wetlands in Midwest farmlands, which could help the region prevent massive spring floods and also retain water and mitigate droughts in a warming climate.

The planning approach, which is being developed and tested in a crop-dominated watershed near Indianapolis, is designed to identify the small areas best suited to wetland development, optimize their location and size, and restore a significant portion of the region’s historic water storage ability by using only a small fraction of its land.… Read more ›