Riverside’s Kate Giannini to bring Dutch flood-planning tool back to Iowa

RIVERSIDE — Kate Giannini’s work on flood resilience has taken her from small-town Iowa to the Netherlands this winter, where she is using a Fulbright exchange to help bring a Dutch flood-planning tool to an Iowa community for the first time.

According to a press release from the University of Iowa, Giannini will collaborate with Deltares, a research institute in Delft, Netherlands, to advance FloodAdapt and evaluate watershed management frameworks that support climate adaptation.

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“FloodAdapt is a planning and decision-support tool designed to support communities in developing flood adaptation strategies,” Giannini wrote from Deltares. “Our goal is to run ‘what-if’ flood scenarios and compare results with a Dutch community facing similar riverine flood challenges.”

Giannini, a program manager with the Iowa Flood Center at the University of Iowa, began the six-week exchange in late December 2025, the university said. She is scheduled to work with Deltares through the first week of February, and she said she hopes the partnership continues well beyond the scholarship.

FloodAdapt, developed by Deltares and partners, aims to help communities prepare for and respond to severe weather by showing how floodwaters could move through neighborhoods and what that water could damage.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate has described FloodAdapt as a tool that combines flood modeling with impact assessment, designed to support decision-making for emergency managers and local leaders before, during and after floods.

DHS said the project focuses on giving communities a way to evaluate different flood scenarios and test strategies that could reduce risk — including the ability to quickly generate information that helps responders understand where impacts could concentrate when storms hit.

“My first week as a Fulbright Scholar is nearly complete,” she wrote. “I’ve also begun connecting with the FloodAdapt advisers and developers as we work to select an Iowa community to pilot FloodAdapt.”

Giannini said the Iowa community selected for the pilot will become the first in the Upper Mississippi River Basin to use the model. According to her, the current plan is to try to pilot FloodAdapt for Columbus Junction.

The exchange builds on Giannini’s Iowa-based career in conservation and watershed work and on a leadership style that blends technical expertise with relationship-building. The University of Iowa said she leads partner engagement and strategic development that strengthens flood resilience and water-quality initiatives across the state.

The University of Iowa said Giannini’s Fulbright work aligns with the mission of the Iowa Flood Center, which provides tools and information to support flood monitoring and decision-making across the state. Giannini described her goal as making sure international research translates into local action.

“Through this experience, my goal is to explore opportunities for collaboration to advance Deltares’s FloodAdapt model and see if we can do a pilot project in Iowa or within the Upper Mississippi River Basin using their model,” she said in the university’s release ahead of arriving in Delft.

In the months ahead, Giannini and her partners plan to pair an Iowa community with a Dutch community facing similar river flooding challenges — an effort meant to help local leaders see potential impacts clearly and choose adaptation strategies before high water arrives.

“Grateful for the warm welcome and excited for what’s ahead!” she wrote from Delft.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Kruse@southeastiowaunion.com