Photo of Ricardo Mantilla Gutierrez on a bridge.

Predicting Floods with Computer Simulations

IIHR's Ricardo Mantilla is the principal architect of the Iowa Flood Center's flood prediction model, HLM-Async.
Matthew Streeter on a dirt road
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Water-quality Project Underway in Buchanan County

A new project funded by the Iowa Nutrient Research Center aims to understand the nutrient reduction benefits of roadside ditches.
A hand holds a trout
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Solving Urban Runoff Water-Quality Problems

IIHR, and the Cedar Rapids Public Works department installed real-time water-quality sensors on a stormwater outfall on McLoud Run
A machine harvests soybeans
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Corn is King, but Soybeans Have an Impact Too

Soybeans now rival corn
An agricultural tile empties water into an Iowa Stream
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Surprising Phosphorus Trends

We now know that total phosphorus concentrations have significantly decreased at a dozen sites on Iowa’s rivers. Phosphorus, along with nitrate, is commonly used as fertilizer; both contribute to nutrients in Iowa’s rivers and streams and ultimately all the way downstream to the Gulf of Mexico.
Tom Stoeffler speaks with Dan Mahoney standing in a river. The water-quality sensor can be seen behind them
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IIHR’s Water-quality Network Grows

Thanks to a network of water-quality sensors deployed and maintained by IIHR—Hydroscience & Engineering, water-quality data is now readily available for many sites in Iowa.
Corn plants stretching as far as you can see on the left, and soybeans going just as far on the right
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Understanding Changes in Raccoon River Nitrate

As Iowa farmers have planted more acres of corn to meet the demand driven by the corn-based ethanol industry, many models predicted that nitrate concentrations in Iowa streams would increase accordingly. However, recent IIHR research based on water monitoring and published in the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation casts doubt on these predictions.
A seated man near the Iowa River in fall
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What’s in the Water?

Greg LeFevre, who joined IIHR in January as an assistant research scientist, is particularly interested in what becomes of certain contaminants as they move through the final stages of the water cycle. LeFevre studies biotransformation—or the chemical alteration—of contaminants in aquatic environments.
A portrait of Kathryn Klarich wearing a blue scarf
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Gravitating Toward the Water

Klarich, a new member of the Cwiertny Lab, researches neonicotinoids, a class of insecticide that was found to be present in the Iowa River by the U.S. Geological Survey and IIHR researchers in 2014.
Two men shake hands
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IIHR Graduate Researcher Hacks into Citizen Science

Yusuf Sermet was recently recognized with two awards at the Midwest Hackathon at Iowa State University. His crowdsourcing project focused on flood data.
Larry Weber stands close to the camera with the rest of the IWP team behind him in front of a pond
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IFC Helps Bring $96.9M HUD Grant to Iowa

The Iowa Flood Center was instrumental in bringing a new $96.9M grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to Iowa.
A view of the Ottumwa treatment basins.
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Safe Drinking Water for Iowans

Scientists at IIHR are working with municipal water supply operators in several Iowa cities to help bring safe and reliable supplies of drinking water to those communities.
Hands and Bottles
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Studying Arsenic in Cerro Gordo County Groundwater

Five years later, a multi-institutional research study determines the source of arsenic in Cerro Gordo County private wells.
Danny Moustakidis, Turkey River Watershed. Standing in front of a river
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Destined for the Water

Danny Moustakidis plays a key role in nutrient research at the University of Iowa, studying soil phosphorus levels in the Turkey Watershed.
David Cwiertny stands in front of the Burlington Street Dam on the Iowa River
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IIHR Researcher Studies Water Pollution Solutions

David Cwiertny is researching water quality and wastewater treatment.
Water rushes through the spillway of the Coralville Dam
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Villarini: Midwest Floods More Frequent

Floods are becoming increasingly more frequent over the Midwest and surrounding states, according to IIHR Assistant Research Engineer Gabriele Villarini.
Closeup of switchgrass
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Switchgrass Removes PCBs from Soil

IIHR researchers have found a type of grass that was once a staple of the American prairie can remove soil laden with PCBs.