2023 Iowa Water Conference

The 17th annual Iowa Water Conference will be held on September 19-20, 2023, at the Meadows Events and Conference Center at Prairie Meadows in Altoona, Iowa. This year, the conference theme is “Navigating the Extremes.” Climate change has been disrupting water supplies and impacting the environment, socioeconomic structures, and ecosystems, such as forests, soils, lakes, cities, and communities.

The Iowa Water Conference and our conference planning partners invite individuals and groups to focus on the ways individuals and communities navigate climate extreme impacts on such areas as drinking water quality and quantity, floods, droughts, and other related subjects.

We are planning three broad focus areas associated with the theme of the conference:

• Climate change: water insecurity, managing/addressing water shortages/excess, water quality, cities’ climate action plans, and related topics
• Sociological implications of climate change: impact on underserved populations, flood management, planning for the metro area watersheds, drought management, including Iowa drought plan and associated policies, building resiliency on many levels, including water policy-building, outreach and education on K-12 and college levels as part of curriculum/instruction and research in higher education
• Women and water: climate change awareness of women landowners; women land legacy group(s); women’s role in policy- and community-building practices.

As a trend of increasing climate extremes is observed across the U.S., we are looking for the findings and responses to droughts, floods, heat waves and sudden intense rainfalls across our region. How do climate extremes impact our communities? What do we do to increase resilience and mitigate the impact of these increasingly frequent events?

Iowa Water Conference is a great opportunity for water, climate, agriculture, and natural resource professionals to come together, brainstorm and collaborate, exchange ideas, and learn from each other.

Join us in Altoona in September 2023 as we explore ways to navigate the extremes.

Proposal Information

The Iowa Water Conference Planning Committee is interested in proposals that address the theme of this year’s conference. Proposals that do not relate directly will be considered by the committee *if* they present new advances on the topic or emphasize interdisciplinary teams at work.

Accepted proposals should include at least one of the following:

• Emphasize diversity of science and members of society (institution, geography, gender, ethnicity, subject)
• Timely water topics that address real-time needs of Iowans
• Exemplify success stories, ground-breaking data, or interesting research approaches
• Address policy discussions on water resources that are data-driven and informed by scientific discovery.

Presentation Options

• Keynote presentation (45-minutes, full conference audience)
• Breakout presentation (30-minutes, small classroom session in a themed track)
• Panel presentation (60-minutes, brief introduction with discussion among presenters and session attendees)
• Mini workshop (60-minutes, guided session that teaches the audience a skill, technology, or other material)

Subject Areas (check top two that apply)

• 2023 special focus: Des Moines and the Racoon River watersheds
• 2023 special focus: Climate change and water
• Cities’ climate action plans
• Community engagement and education
• Current research and technology
• Local agriculture and urban partnerships
• Policy making and water issues
• Sociological implications of climate change
• Soil/water connection
• Water insecurity in Iowa
• Watershed management
• Storm water green infrastructure
• Women, leadership, and water
• Stream restoration.

Information Regarding Co-Presenters

For the abstract submission, please register individuals co-presenting for any of the presentation options listed above. Co-authors (i.e., participants in the project/research but not presenting) should *not* be listed in the submission.

Presenters are welcome to acknowledge co-authors or participants in the project/research at the conference.

Session Set Up

Each room will be equipped with:

• A laptop
• Projector and screen
• One podium
• One microphone
• Classroom-style seating for audience
• Additional materials/equipment will be the responsibility of the presenter to bring.

Communication

To receive notification and updates, please make sure emails from ibassis@iastate.edu and messages from Microsoft Conference Management Toolkit (CMT) are not blocked or routed to the Spam Folder.

Please spell out all acronyms and abbreviations at least once in submitted text.

Proposal Submission

Proposals will be submitted through Microsoft Conference Management Toolkit. No submissions will be accepted via email to conference organizers. Please read the instructions below to submit. Incomplete submissions or submissions sent to Iowa Water Conference staff or planning committee members will be eliminated from consideration.

• Go to https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/IWC2023/Submission/Index
• Select “Create Account” and fill out the requested information to register
• Once you are logged in, follow prompts to create your submission
• Select “Create New Submission”
• Select “Presentations 2023” for presentation submission
• Enter the title and abstract
• Select “Add” under the Authors section to add additional co-presenters if any***
• Select applicable Subject Areas
• Answer additional questions, if any
• Select “Submit.”

*** For the abstract submission, please register individuals who are co-presenting at the conference for any of the presentation options listed above. Those not presenting should not be listed in the submission even if they are co-authors on the project or paper.