ABSTRACT Prairie strips are narrow bands of native vegetation embedded within row‐crop fields. They are a promising nature‐based measure for reducing field‐scale flood peaks. We evaluated their hydrologic performance and placement sensitivity using an integrated surface‐subsurface model for two comparable sub‐watersheds in the US Midwest: a treatment watershed (TRT, 48,900 m²) and a corn‐only control (CTRL, 42,800 m²). Calibration/validation performance using observed runoff was NSE = 0.87 and KGE = 0.65. In comparison to a corn‐only baseline simulation, introducing prairie strips in a moderate rainfall condition reduced event total runoff volume by 84% and peak discharge by 64% in the 10%‐area scenario, and consistently delayed time‐to‐peak. Placement mattered: single footslope strips lowered peaks by ≈41.4%, upper and mid‐slope placements by ≈32%–33%, a middle and footslope combination by ≈54.3%, and a distributed 10% layout achieved the largest attenuation (≈63.8%). We tested the strips peak flow attenuation potential for design storms with return periods of 10, 25, 50, and 100 years. Across design storms, the greatest total‐runoff reduction occurred for the 10‐year event (36.3%), with diminishing benefits at higher return periods as infiltration and storage were exceeded. Overall, prairie strips provide a practical, farm‐compatible, and cost‐effective option for managing frequent storms, with meaningful benefits even when less than 10% of the field can be allocated, especially when strips are targeted to footslope zones or stacked across slope positions.
Eustace et al. (Sun,) studied this question.