Report
Maquoketa River Watershed Management Plan – Phase 2: Subwatershed Implementation
Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities
University of Iowa, Iowa Initiative For Sustainable Communities
05/2022
DOI: 10.17077/rep.006709
Abstract
During the 2020-21 academic year, a team of five urban & regional planning students helped create the Maquoketa River Watershed Management Authority’s first ever plan. The team studied best practices, reviewed existing plans from across the state, and conducted a series of public engagement activities in order to develop broad goals and objectives for the entire watershed. The 2021-22 planning team continued the work started by the previous group, further developing the plan and continuing engagement with the public and local stakeholders.
Following the development of other WMAs over the past ten years, the next phase of activity after forming a board and completing the first plan is filled with marketing, outreach, events, training, certification, technical analyses for decision support, site-specific scoping and pilot project implementation. The planning team assisted MRWMA to operationalize the plan, particularly through watershed-wide site-specific analyses to scope out the locations and acres of green infrastructure needed to reach the intermediate and long-term outcomes of interest for water quality and flooding in each sub-watershed.
The bulk of this plan focuses on subwatershed analysis, prioritization, and plans. In the Sub-watershed Analysis, variables related to each of the four key issues are broken down to the HUC-12 level in order to examine spatial trends of existing conditions. Results showed that the conditions in the northern half of the watershed currently contribute to issues more than other areas.
The 56 HUC-12 sub-watersheds were prioritized based on a survey given to the WMA Technical Committee in which they ranked issues and associated variables. Of these 56, the five highest priority subwatersheds are located in the northern half of the watershed. Each of the priority HUC-12s has an individual plan to provide more detailed information about why it is a priority, where existing and potential agricultural best management practices are, and a list of goals and objectives to help improve conditions.
The plan recommends that the WMA, communities, and residents should select cost-effective projects that address plan Phase I goals and objectives by following guidance included in the Plan Implementation section. Criteria such as the strength of improvement, negative impacts, and project cost need to be thoroughly considered when selecting specific sites for a range of management practices. To engage with communities across the watershed, the WMA should not only follow priority sub-watershed plans, but also focus on lower priority HUC-12s for planning and project implementation. Every five years, the WMA should reassess the success of this plan by examining key issues and metrics used in the sub-watershed analysis to account for the ever changing conditions and impacts from conservation practice implementation.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Maquoketa River Watershed Management Plan – Phase 2: Subwatershed Implementation
- Creators
- Tanner OsingMaya SimonHenry Wakamiya
- Contributors
- Travis Kraus - University of Iowa, School of Planning and Public AffairsScott N Spak - University of Iowa, School of Planning and Public AffairsMaquoketa River Watershed Management Authority (Institution)
- Resource Type
- Report
- Publication Details
- Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities
- DOI
- 10.17077/rep.006709
- Publisher
- University of Iowa, Iowa Initiative For Sustainable Communities; Iowa City, Iowa, USA
- Number of pages
- 113 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2022 the authors
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 05/2022
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering; Public Policy Center (Archive); School of Planning and Public Affairs; Urban and Regional Planning Final Projects
- Record Identifier
- 9984280259402771
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