Lyric Howard
Shea
CODES 101
29 August 2024
Quad Cities is Flooding
In eighth grade I remember the whispers of excitement for an upcoming field trip. Every kid on the honor roll in the district was given a free ticket to the infamous River Bandit game. After working hard and excelling in my classes I was one of the lucky students. It had been a beautiful week, and everyone was prepared for a day of missing classes; But then that night the storm appeared! Sirens blasted and rain poured down on our unsuspecting town. It felt like ages before it ended. Before we knew it the town was flooded. Businesses had closed, and people could barely leave their house without swim shoes. Worst of all the trip was cancelled, and I had to attend school.
In the span of two years my hometown of the Quad Cities has had major flooding three times. Two times in 2023 and so far once in 2024. The flooding of small towns may not seem as wicked of a problem as some of the issues seen in the textbook such as food deserts, but it truly is. There are six components to a wicked problem and the continuous flooding of Moline applies to every component. The components are vague problem definition, undefined solution, no endpoint, irreversible, unique, and urgent. Vague problem definition is described as having multiple and diverse factors involved. Few towns must deal with the issue of flooding due to geographic locations. Being so close to the Mississippi River and lakes causes increased opportunities for floods to occur compared to towns that are not by bodies of water. In other areas where similar things would happen the ecosystem could be affected by constant change of water. The next component is an undefined solution. There is no one way to way to fix flooding and it is hard to find a solution to agree on. Climate change adds to the difficulty of how to fix the problem now but also in the future with continuous changes of water level because of affected precipitation. Flooding will always happen in nature, which brings us to the next component of no end point. Nature will always change, and problems will always appear. The problem can never be fully solved because at some point nature will out work the solution implemented. Due to some
solutions, there can be irreversible damage. An example of a solution they could use is floodwalls. This would cause millions to
build and cause interruption to the ecosystem of the river causing permanent harm. With all of the pieces this causes a unique problem which is also a component to be a wicked problem. One way this problem is unique is because the Quad Cities had a huge flood in 1993. It was known as the flood of the Missouri. During this flood, the water met heights of over 22ft, and cars rushed through the water to get to a safe location. You are probably wondering why I mentioned this when that was over thirty years ago. The reason is because the occurrence of floods has almost doubled since the nineties. With this increasing occurrence the continuous floodings of my town are a unique problem. It is not often towns are flooded to this extent. Being next to the Mississippi river is a unique place to be and even more uniquely we are by multiple lakes. This increases our chances of flooding higher than a town in mid Iowa, because they are not by as many sources of water. It is also urgent that we get the problem with flooding fixed. With global warming we have higher chances than ever of flooding
with escalated precipitation chance increasing river levels. This will cause more flooding to the point my town will not be able to recover. Businesses will close permanently and some of my homes will forever be underwater. We are
already used to this idea. For instance, a small coffee shop in the Quad Cities named Milltown is constantly flooded in their lot. The company is so afraid to the point they’re thinking of moving locations. Additionally, many homes are along the river and these peoples’ garages are near submerging when floodings occur, and the same event happened two months ago. My town submerged in the Mississippi river again. It was like the one that happened in 1993, it met up to 20ft. They covered it as if it was an everyday event. The
common occurrence of the floods is causing us to believe something that was a catastrophe in 1993 is now a typical day. This is a warning that things are getting worse fast, and something needs to change now.
In the end all the components of a wicked problem apply to the issue of the floodings of Moline. The vague problem definition is the many ways flooding affects can differ city to city. The undefined solution are the many ways that flooding can be solved but all come with cons. Not being able to completely end the flooding of the Mississippi River causing there to be no endpoint. Multiple of the solutions are irreversible to the ecosystem and city such as building floodwalls. The unique location of my town; and the urgency to find a solution that will work are all are reasons why the flooding of the Quad Cities is an important problem that needs attention. Maybe than other kids will be able to go to their special ballpark games.