Abstract

Estimating the Economic Impact of Missouri River Floods on Agriculture
Track: Agriculture
Authors: Tim Johnson

The flooding along the Missouri River in 2011 was the among the worst that many residents had seen in their lifetime. The historically deep snow pack in the watershed and severe spring rains forced the Army Corps to release unprecedented amounts of water downstream from the reservoirs. The resulting flows flooded hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland. The analysis of the agricultural impacts used LANDSAT data along with USDA Crop Data Layer to estimate the economic losses to the agricultural community in Iowa counties along the Missouri River. Different levels of impact were created with overlays from the LANDSAT data and buffers used to determine areas which were not underwater, but did have limited drainage due to high water. The acreages of impacted land and their uses were then loaded into and input/output model to estimate economic impacts.