Planning to Exacerbate Flooding: Evaluating a Houston, Texas, Network of Plans in Place during Hurricane Harvey Using a Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard
Publication: Natural Hazards Review
Volume 22, Issue 4
Abstract
In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey inundated Houston, Texas, where flooding already was a persistent and growing challenge. Coordinated, proactive land-use planning has been shown to help mitigate flooding hazards, whereas conflicting guidance can exacerbate the problem. This study used the Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard (PIRS) method to spatially evaluate a network of plans guiding land use and development in western Houston when Harvey struck, assessing their integration and effects on flood vulnerability. Despite generally positive results, we found important variations and conflicts across plans and across the study area. By encouraging development without sufficient attention to flood risk, some plans and policies increased vulnerability, especially in places outside the official 100-year (1% annual chance) floodplain but still in danger of flooding. A false sense of security provided by local flood control structures may have amplified the problem by enabling more intense development—an example of the safe development paradox—and making the area even more vulnerable to cascading effects from a massive and sustained precipitation event such as Harvey.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, including final Plan Integration for Resilience Scorecard (PIRS) results for the study network of plans.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Award No. 1760258. The findings and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the NSF. The authors thank Dr. Ali Mostafavi for his leadership, support, and encouragement of this and other research endeavors as part of the NSF-RAPID award, as well as Drs. Dawn Jourdan, Sam Brody, and Kent Portney for their helpful critiques of early drafts. We also are grateful for the thoughtful evaluations of three anonymous reviewers and the guidance of the editorial staff at Natural Hazards Review.
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Published In
Natural Hazards Review
Volume 22 • Issue 4 • November 2021
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© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 4, 2020
Accepted: Dec 30, 2020
Published online: Jun 16, 2021
Published in print: Nov 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Nov 16, 2021
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