The Iowa Flood Center – Reflections on 15 Years of Applied Flood Research

Abstract Submission: Following devastating floods in 2008, the Iowa Flood Center (IFC) was created at the University of Iowa’s IIHR–Hydroscience & Engineering by the state legislature with the mission of improving flood monitoring and prediction. Over the past 15 years, the IFC has designed and deployed large hydrologic sensor networks, developed and operated a statewide real-time hydrologic forecast model, and created community-based flood inundation map libraries to communicate short- and long-term flood hazards. IFC and other flood-relevant data are communicated through a public-facing web interface, the Iowa Flood Information System (IFIS), which has become a critical resource for mitigation planning and disaster response. IFC also leads programs that investigate and construct novel watershed-scale flood mitigation strategies. IFC partnerships have enhanced state and federal agency missions, and have made national impacts on flood science.

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