Hot topic: Flooding

2010 has already been another year of flooding for the state of Wisconsin. Many remember the severe floods of 2008 and in April 2009 a conference was held in Madison to consider what could be learned from this type of disaster and what can be done to mitigate the related problems. A new reports just out summarizes key contributions from that conference and covers a broad range of relevant topics about flooding in Wisconsin such as hydrology, climate change, water quality, health impacts, mitigation options, human services and economic consequences.

Experts who spoke at the symposium emphasized stronger leadership, more communication, better research, greater education and stiffer laws to help control food damage and reduce the loss of property and lives. They also identified a need to fundamentally reconsider how policymakers ask residents to share risk and responsibility, and the role of government in shaping those choices.

Read the full report.

See more resources available from the Water Library.

Photo courtesy of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey website. Photo shows flooding in spring Green, Wisconsin (2008).

In the News: Lake Delton is back

LAKE DELTON, Wis. -- The last time Bobbie Kochendorfer's family saw Lake Delton was about a year ago -- after the earth gave way and gravity drained the lakewaters into the Wisconsin River.

"You could walk anywhere," she said Monday. "And there was that muck. You know, that stinky muck?"

Several million dollars later, the lake is back, and so is Kochendorfer's family, enjoying the view from an amphibious Duck boat spewing diesel fumes and whoops of joy.

Since heavy rains washed out a berm holding the artificial lake back from the Wisconsin River last summer, engineers, town leaders and the Wisconsin state bureaucracy have moved tons of earth to restore this jewel of the Wisconsin Dells.

Article By James Janega at Chicago Tribune.

To read full article, go to Chicago Tribune.

Flood seminar seeks to avoid future devastation

Two national experts will join more than a dozen Wisconsin researchers and government officials in April in Madison at a symposium aimed at helping Wisconsin communities avoid devastating floods like those that inundated the Midwest last year.

Gerry Galloway, of the University of Maryland, and Ray Burby, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will highlight the symposium "From Sandbags to Sanity: The Policy Implications of the Midwest Floods of 2008," to be held Monday, April 20, at the Monona Terrace convention center.

The project is funded by the Ira and Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment, now it its seventh year, which supports projects that advance the Wisconsin Idea through collaborations with communities and outside organizations. Additional support is being provided by the UW-Madison Water Resources Institute and the Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy.

The daylong conference is free and open to the public, but registration is required and limited to 150. To register, call Bridget Pirsch at 608-265-2658 or e-mail her at pirsch@lafollette.wisc.edu. Deadline is Wednesday, April 15.

To learn more, check out complete article at UW News.

USGS publishes two new reports on Wisconsin's waters

The United States Geological Survey has issued two new reports on Wisconsin waters:

Flood of June 2008 in Southern Wisconsin
By Faith A. Fitzpatrick, Marie C. Peppler, John F. Walker, William J. Rose, Robert J. Waschbusch, and James L. Kennedy
From the Abstract:
In June 2008, heavy rain caused severe flooding across southern Wisconsin. The floods were aggravated by saturated soils that persisted from unusually wet antecedent conditions from a combination of floods in August 2007, more than 100 inches of snow in winter 2007–08, and moist conditions in spring 2008. The flooding caused immediate evacuations and road closures and prolonged, extensive damages and losses associated with agriculture, businesses, housing, public health and human needs, and infrastructure and transportation.

Record gage heights and streamflows occurred at 21 U.S. Geological Survey streamgages across southern Wisconsin from June 7 to June 21. Peak-gage-height data, peak-streamflow data, and flood probabilities are tabulated for 32 USGS streamgages in southern Wisconsin. Peak-gage-height and peak-streamflow data also are tabulated for three ungaged locations.

Environmental Settings of Selected Streams Sampled for Mercury in Oregon, Wisconsin, and Florida, 2002–06
By Amanda H. Bell and Michelle A. Lutz
From the Abstract:
From 2002 through 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment Program conducted studies investigating mercury biogeochemistry and food-web bioaccumulation in eight streams from three distinct geographic areas of the United States. These streams varied greatly in environmental characteristics, including land-cover, hydrologic, climatic, and chemical characteristics. They ranged from a clear-water, high-gradient, low-percentage wetland stream in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, to an urban stream near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to a low-gradient, blackwater stream draining the Okefenokee and Pinhook Swamps along the Georgia-Florida border. This report summarizes the environmental settings of these eight streams.