Building Resilience against Flash Floods: A Tale of Two Communities in Des Moines, Iowa, USA

Global climate change is increasingly affecting weather patterns and putting communities through disaster shocks with which they have no previous experience. Many cities in the United States are operating on infrastructure and stormwater drainage systems that were not designed to handle increasingly turbulent weather patterns, including extreme flood events. They are adapting both green and gray infrastructures to build longer-term resilience in communities. There is a lack of systematic analysis on community choices, government priorities, and the effectiveness of different flood mitigation strategies, especially in small and medium-sized cities in the United States. Using the case study of the 2018 flash flood in Des Moines, Iowa, this paper compares nature-based solutions (NBS), green infrastructure investments, and property buyouts, examining how community members perceive these different methods of flood mitigation following a major flash flooding event. Fifteen inter-views with key informants and government officials, and secondary evidence are used. The results show a detectable resistance within communities towards funded gray infrastructures and relocations that fracture neighborhoods after disasters. The findings add a comparison of green infrastructure investments, property buyouts, and gray infrastructure improvements as methods of flash flood mitigation in Des Moines, Iowa, and their effectiveness in the contexts of affected communities. The study concludes that context-specific and community-focused approaches, combined with pre-disaster recovery planning, are more effective in building longer-term resilience to floods and other climate-induced disasters than following popular prescriptive approaches.