Houston

Question 1

What is the problem with governance in Houston?

Answer 1

• Are too focussed on developing land on floodplains
• Are too confident on improving flood infrastructure being enough to offset effects of developing floodplains
• Are unwilling to study effects that climate change may have on the flood risk in the area

Question 2

What sort of improvements to infrastructure have been proposed by flood control district heads?

Answer 2

• retrofitting old drainage
• widening river outlets
• building more ponds to store floodwater

Question 3

What are the main problems facing Houston?

Answer 3

• climate change is making “once in a lifetime” flood events more frequent
  
  • Gulf of Mexico is getting warmer, sits next to Houston
• buildings that were not located in the ‘100 year’ floodplain have been flooded at least 3 times in 15 years
  
  • called ‘urban flooding’
• old data is being used to determine location of floodplains
• large amount of urbanisation on former floodplains

Question 4

How much urbanisation has occurred in Houston?

Answer 4

• Katy Prairie had 600k acres of open land
  
  • now reduced to 1/4 capacity due to development
• 30% of freshwater wetlands lost from 1992 to 2010
• 25% increase in area of impervious surfaces from 1996 to 2011

Question 5

How much population growth occurred in Cypress Creek in the 90s?

Answer 5

• 35%
• 2 major floods hit the area
  
  • 1 in 500 year events

Question 6

When did Storm Allison happen?

Answer 6

• June 2001

Question 7

How much rain did Storm Allison bring?

Answer 7

• 40 inches in 5 days

Question 8

How much damage did Storm Allison cause?

Answer 8

• > $5bn
• 73k homes flooded
• 95k cars flooded

Question 9

Why was Storm Allison such a shock?

Answer 9

• almost half of buildings flooded were outside areas designated as floodplains by FEMA

Question 10

What action was taken after Storm Allison?

Answer 10

• redrawing of floodplain maps by FEMA
  
  • larger in some areas by as much as 20%
• improvements in drainage, construction of larger retention ponds

Question 11

What do experts say needs to happen in Houston?

Answer 11

• communities need to move away from developing within 100 year floodplains
• preserve green spaces
• planning for climate change
• remove 140,000 homes remaining in 100 year floodplains

Question 12

How much are the proposed improvements to infrastructure expected to cost?

Answer 12

• $25bn
  
  • at current spending rate of $80 million will take 400 years to achieve
  • Congress is unwilling to allocate more funding to speed up process