Research seminar - June 2022 - Caroline Gottschalk Druschke, Eric Booth, and Rebecca Lave - Supporting Resilience in the Driftless Area

Caroline Gottschalk Druschke, Eric Booth, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Rebecca Lave from Indiana University presented their current NSF-funded research on flood resilience. For the past year, they have been conducting research that focuses on flood prevention in the "Driftless" region of southwestern Wisconsin. They question the links between stream restoration in the region and flood prevention. To do so, they rely on a mixed method combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. The Driftless area is an agricultural region that has experienced several large-scale floods since 2007 in connection with climate change. Historically, floods have been managed thanks to grey infrastructures, but recently, there has been a shift in terms of strategy by the stream managers that are now trying to move towards more watershed restoration practices. While the researchers have not observed the term "nature-based solutions" being used locally, they noticed the use of "natural flood management" in the region. This presentation was particularly interesting for the research teams as it offers a different perspective on NbS in the United-States. Both research teams were eager to keep on exchanging on the future.