Prevent future flood damage with two practices

It broke my heart to see the images of flood devastation in Spencer, Hawarden, and many other Iowa communities. I saw similar tragedy serving on my city council during the flood of 2008; I learned that city leaders across Iowa routinely allowed filling in the floodplain and building on it, taking room away from the river, and putting unsuspecting residents and businesses in harm's way.

Brand-new homes, built on filled-in wetland in accordance with city floodplain ordinance, had 5 feet of water in their living rooms in Cedar Falls in 2008.

Most flood emergencies can be prevented if Iowa communities adopted two basic practices:

1. Respect and protect the floodplain. In the same way that don’t park on the interstate, don’t build on the floodplain! After the 2008 flood, Cedar Falls adopted one of the best floodplain ordinances in the state preventing development in the 500-year floodplain of a river or stream.

2. Incentivize land management practices that restore the capacity of upstream land to absorb rainfall and store it in the soil profile. In other words, improve the sponginess of upstream land. More acres in pastures, in 3 or 4-year crop rotation, more land in prairie, in deep-rooting perennials, more wetlands, more stream buffers.

There is plenty of evidence that these two practices will significantly reduce property damage, reduce peak flood elevation, save millions of dollars, and prevent devastation while making Iowa more beautiful. I invite local leaders to consider learning about these two approaches for a better Iowa.

Kamyar Enshayan, PhD

Cedar Falls