University of Iowa Hydraulic Engineer Larry Weber discusses the 2008 flood and subsequent recovery efforts

Larry Weber, Director of the University of Iowa Department of Hydroscience and Engineering, describes how he and others prepared the University for flooding based on increasing warning signs in the months leading up to the deluge. During the disaster, he ordered the Hydroscience and Engineering laboratory evacuated and its basement flooded. He notes that for about a year, experts from his lab focused their energies on helping regional residents recover at great expense to the department’s academic research and grant-writing initiatives. But their work, he argues, was worth the sacrifice and provided important relief to Iowa communities. Since 2008, Weber has focused on discovering new ways to combat future flooding. The Iowa Watersheds Project, a federally funded initiative to make the Iowa landscape more sustainable, often by redeveloping segments of agricultural land into wetlands and prairies reminiscent of the pre-1830 era. Interviewer Youlia Tznov