Witold Krajewski, holder of the Rose and Joseph Summers Chair in Water Resources Engineering, professor of civil and environmental engineering, an

director of the Iowa Flood Center (IFC), a unit of IIHR--Hydroscience and Engineering, told a gathering of information technology officials June 15 in Iowa City that the IFC's information system has helped monitor and predict, among other things, future flooding.

IFC is the nation’s first academic center devoted to floods and flood prevention.

Krajewski said the flood center has been using high-performance computing to help warn communities about flooding dangers in their area.

“At the Flood Center, we do this through experimentation and modeling, as well as the measurement of water at different times and locations,” he said.

Krajewski said the benefit of the center is officials can monitor smaller areas of heavy rainfall that can turn into flooding. The system is an interactive web platform for the public to access community-based flood conditions, forecasts, flood-related data, and information.

The annual UI Tech Forum also included a panel discussion on IT efficiency initiatives. The panel, consisting of representatives from the UI, University of Northern Iowa, Iowa State, and the University of Michigan, discussed the need for increased expansion and advancement in university ITS departments.