Watershed Planning & Design

Impact7G is Iowa’s leader for innovative water quality planning and design with extensive experience in river, stream, and riparian restoration projects. We are driven by a scientific approach to creating water quality practices based on natural systems.

Watershed design and restoration planning provides an important opportunity to identify areas and projects that would provide the greatest water quality and community benefit, ultimately improving the local watershed for seven generations and beyond!

Impact7G works with municipalities, counties, landowners and developers, landscape designers, engineers, and architects. We work with your team to add ecological, cultural, and economic value to sites with natural resource features, while also addressing sites that are contaminated, degraded, isolated, or underutilized.

Watershed Assessments →
Mitigation Banking →
Stream Restoration →
Stormwater Management →

Watershed Assessments

Watersheds are complex systems due to the interaction between human land uses and natural elements such as climate, surface water, soil, underlying geology, groundwater, vegetation, and wildlife. To help protect and remedy impacts to water quality and ecosystem health, Impact7G designs watershed plans that provide overarching objectives and site-specific improvement recommendations.

Watershed assessments help communities understand the relationship between surface water, soils, and the water table. Impact7G conducts comprehensive watershed analyses to ensure that wetlands and stormwater BMPs work together to improve water quality and reduce flash flooding. One of the main reason practices such as wetland mitigation sites, stormwater wetlands and other stormwater best management practices fail is because the wetland/practices do not support or are not supported by the hydrology.

Mitigation Banking

Development projects often result in unavoidable impacts to wetlands and streams that are protected under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. Mitigation banking provides compensation through the restoration, establishment, or enhancement of a wetland, stream, or other aquatic resources. A successful mitigation bank creates “credits” with the coordination of the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Interagency Review Team (IRT). The credits are then sold to permittees to meet permit requirements.

Our team of staff with decades of experience in mitigation banking will work with you to evaluate banking prospects, site suitability, budget/Pro Forma and needs assessments. Once a suitable site is identified, our professional wetland scientist,  fluvial geomorphologist, and cultural resource team will assess the wetland/stream type, site hydrology, precipitation, water tables, as well as flood frequency and duration and utilize wetland and in-stream field assessments to design for improved function and values for years to come. We will utilize the latest tools to determine wetland functions and values, environmental lift, and use the Iowa DNR River Restoration Toolbox and Iowa Stream Mitigation Method to calculate net benefit and design options.  The culmination of good science, locally informed design, and the awareness of local regulatory and market needs makes sure you have a customized and outstanding mitigation banking project.

Stream Restoration

Impact7G works and thinks outside the box, often setting the guidelines for restoration in Iowa. Our high standards will create an adaptable and workable stream and floodplain restoration plan based on the culmination of good science, locally informed design, and awareness of local guidelines and principles, regulatory, and mitigation needs.

We place emphasis on restoring ecological function using plant-based bio stabilization techniques to stabilize streambanks while focusing on riparian revegetation using native plants. Our design team develops solutions for floodplain reconnection and restoration that provide communities with opportunities for environmental education and recreational use of streams, rivers, and riparian areas.

Our team will analyze stream type, site hydrology, precipitation, water tables, as well as flood frequency and duration. We conduct in-stream field assessments and utilize the latest tools, including the Iowa DNR River Restoration Toolbox and Iowa Stream Mitigation Method, to calculate net benefit and design options that will result in improved function and values for years to come. We stand out as a distinctive firm having a holistic level of appreciation and understanding of Iowa’s unique natural resources. Restoration that uses a floodplain reconnection strategy improves stream ecology, reduces sediment load, lowers nutrient loading, and increases flood storage. These can all be described as “ecological services” provided by the stream and floodplain.

Stormwater Management

From large stormwater wetlands to small rain gardens, cities, developers, and landowners are increasingly adopting “green infrastructure” practices. Nature-based stormwater solutions improve local water quality, reduce flash flooding, and provide aesthetic and recreational value to the community. Our water experts are ready to tackle your stormwater issues.

Impact7G uses a scientific approach creating water quality practices based on natural systems designs.  Our stormwater and water quality consulting services generate significant benefits to our clients, their communities, and the surrounding environment through the mitigation of excess runoff and flooding, and the preservation of water quality. We blend planning and policy development with practical water resources science.  Impact7G can develop a master plan that provides a roadmap to effective stormwater management, as well as forecasting capital investment over time, to achieve our client’s ultimate objectives.