Flood mitigationComprehensive strategy required to tackle Houston flooding problems

Published 6 April 2018

A new report by leading Texas researchers analyzes in detail a variety of shortcomings with the Houston area’s current — and proposed — approach to flood control. The report calls on civil leaders to pursue a multifaceted and regional strategy which ensures that all communities receive better protection regardless of socioeconomic status.

A new report by leading Texas researchers analyzes in detail a variety of shortcomings with the Houston area’s current — and proposed — approach to flood control. The report calls on civil leaders to pursue a multifaceted and regional strategy which ensures that all communities receive better protection regardless of socioeconomic status.

The Greater Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium, whose members wrote the report is a group of scientists from universities and other institutions across the state formed just after Hurricane Harvey ravaged the region last August. The report says current regulations aimed at lessening the impacts of flooding are patchwork and often subpar, doing little to effectively corral floodwater.

“Consortium members believe the overall approach to mitigating flooding in a watershed should be focused at both the watershed and neighborhood level,” the report says.

Here are the report’s conclusions:

Conclusions: Strategies for flood mitigation in Greater Houston
We are seeing a paradigm shift in how the Houston area contemplates flooding and its consequences. From the general public to business to policy-makers—greater Houston must fully embrace this shift as to how the region responds to the challenges and consequences of flooding.

In the past three decades, HCFCD [Harris County Flood Control District] and its partners have abandoned the previous approach of straightening bayous and lining them in concrete in favor of a new approach that uses detention basins and natural channel design. We have now seen that approach work in multiple flood events; completing projects already underway and extending this approach to more watersheds will help hundreds of thousands of residents.

Based on the consortium’s work to date, we have drawn a number of key conclusions, which reflect the consensus of our members. In the coming months, watershed analyses will be completed, which will allow for more detailed conclusions. Edition II will include these findings.

General

· There is no way to completely eliminate flooding in Houston. We can only minimize its impacts.

· Most flood control assessments, including the federal government’s cost-benefit ratio, calculate benefits through economic value, not impact on human lives.

· Data about building slab elevations is critical to understanding the full extent of damages due to flooding depths.

· A flood risk mapping approach that estimates the likelihood of all flood scenarios will be more useful than the traditional floodplain mapping approach.

· The level of flood protection across watersheds is not equitable.