A map by UI researchers shows flood risk for Iowa farmland

College of Iowa researchers have created a map to point out which of Iowa’s farmlands are most in danger for floods. Their findings present almost 450,000 of the state’s crop-producing acres are extremely weak to flooding.

4 wetlands throughout the state have the very best threat: Center Cedar in jap Iowa, North Raccoon and South Skunk in central Iowa and West Nishnabotna in southwest Iowa. These areas have a 50 p.c probability of flooding annually, in accordance with the analysis from UI’s IIHR Hydroscience and Engineering division.

“Floods are occurring extra ceaselessly than ever, as we are able to simply see from traits,” mentioned Enes Yildirim, researcher and co-author of the examine. “So I believed it might be good to mirror the present threat, and that may be useful for additional purposes corresponding to mitigation.”

Iowa sees round $230 million in crop losses annually because of flooding, in accordance with the analysis performed by Yildirim and his co-author Ibrahim Demir.

The analysis evaluates each the flood threat of areas and their crop productiveness, utilizing knowledge from the Iowa Flood Middle, the Federal Emergency Administration Company (FEMA) and the U.S. Division of Agriculture. Yildirim mentioned understanding how fertile the land is will help policymakers resolve on what mitigation methods to take.

Some flood-prone lands, just like the West Nishnabotna area, are extremely fertile and worthwhile to the meals manufacturing trade. Others, just like the Center Cedar wetlands, have decrease charges of farm productibility. Yildirim recommends taking these components into consideration when deciding whether or not to construct extra flood safety measures, like levees, or to think about altering the usage of the land.

“[Lands with low productivity] may very well be transformed into wetlands,” he mentioned. “And that wetland prevents flood peaks and absorbs the water. After which you will notice much less excessive flooding occasions for that space.”

Iowa has seen 29 flood-related catastrophe declarations since 1953, in accordance with FEMA. Within the final 15 years, main or historic flooding has occurred 4 occasions throughout the state.

Yildirim mentioned main flooding occasions are more likely to improve within the coming years. Previous research by the college have proven that the rise in greenhouse gases is contributing to better flood disasters within the Midwest.