{"id":6560,"date":"2020-10-07T16:54:25","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T21:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arch.tamu.edu.staging2.juiceboxint.com\/news\/2020\/10\/07\/turning-back-the-tide-of-flooding\/"},"modified":"2022-06-27T14:18:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T19:18:56","slug":"turning-back-the-tide-of-flooding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arch.tamu.edu\/news\/2020\/10\/07\/turning-back-the-tide-of-flooding\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning Back the Tide of Flooding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flooding is the most disruptive natural hazard in the U.S. It\u2019s also an issue of great significance in Texas, whose Gulf Coast region is home to 7 million people \u2014 a population greater than 35 of the U.S. states.<\/p>\n

The potential for another Hurricane Harvey-like disaster is ever-present. The hurricane\u2019s catastrophic damage, spread through a 49-county area, ranged in the hundreds of billions of dollars; the damage was exacerbated by decades of development in low- lying coastal areas.<\/p>\n

Research Leads to Answers<\/h2>\n

The best response to flooding is a coordinated group of local, regional and national-scale, evidence-based solutions, said Galen Newman, an associate professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning<\/a> and director of the Center for Housing and Urban Development<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Newman is part of a sizable band of researchers seeking flooding solutions as part of Partnerships for International Research (PIRE)<\/a>, a massive, $3.5 million, five-year initiative funded by the National Science Foundation that includes faculty and student researchers from Texas A&M, Rice University, Jackson State University, and TU Delft in the Netherlands, a nation that has fine- tuned flood mitigation techniques for centuries and is considered the world\u2019s flood prevention leader.<\/p>\n

In addition to collaborating year- round with Netherlands flood reduction experts, Newman, with other PIRE-associated faculty, accompanies 15 Texas A&M students to the Netherlands each summer as a part of the PIRE program to conduct flood reduction research with his guidance. (The trip was suspended in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.)<\/p>\n

\"LAUP
Flood researchers, including Galen Newman of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, are learning there\u2019s no \u201cone size fits all\u201d solution to flooding.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One Size Doesn’t Fit All<\/h2>\n

Part of the complexity of implementing flood reduction measures is that there\u2019s no \u201cone-size- fits-all\u201d solution, said Newman, who heads the Texas A&M Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning\u2019s PIRE engagement. There\u2019s a variety of measures, such as engineered structures \u2014 levees, dikes and seawalls \u2014 as well as \u201cgreen\u201d infrastructure, including wetlands and detention ponds.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a difference in project size: large scale, such as the previously mentioned dikes; medium scale, such as a park or riparian zone instead of a housing or commercial development in a flood zone, and small scale, such as rain gardens or a bioswale \u2014 a landscape element with gently sloped, vegetation-filled sides that removes silt and pollution from storm water runoff and routes it to larger waterways.<\/p>\n

Ideally, these measures all work together, conveying ordinary amounts of storm water to a designated area for holding or funneling to other channels. In the case of storm water overflow, instead of inundating homes or businesses, it should get funneled to other channels until it is eventually washed into a lake, reservoirs or other bodies of water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe intent is to also slow the volume of storm water runoff and capture as much as you can to increase its ground absorption,\u201d said Newman. \u201cYou\u2019re looking to reduce the amount of impervious surfaces such as parking lots, which are a significant contributor to urban flooding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDown-Home” Solutions<\/h2>\n

Newman has applied his PIRE-related research findings to Texas projects.<\/p>\n

In one study, Newman explored and devised enhancements for integrating the previously proposed Ike Dike \u2013 a proposed clay-core dune running along Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula with two large-scale floodgates at opposite ends of the island \u2013 into the landscape, with less visual and spatial disturbance. The dike\u2019s proponents see it as a protection mechanism from Galveston Island floods, but the dune, if not integrated correctly, could also become a visual and social barrier that decreases beachfront connectivity and walkability and fragment animal habitat areas.<\/p>\n

Newman recommended incorporating elements that would improve the dune by providing economic and social benefits to the area while enhancing the dunes\u2019 flood reduction effectiveness, that include the placement of:<\/p>\n