The Houston area's flooding problems offer lessons for cities attempting to adapt to a changing climate

Scenes from the Houston area looked just like the aftermath of a hurricane In early May after a series of severe storms flooded highways and neighborhoods and sent rivers over their banks north of town.

More than 400 people needed to be rescued from houses, roofs and cars, based on The Associated Press. Nearly 20 inches of rain fell in Huntsville from April 29 to May 4, 2024.

Floods are complex events that involve greater than just heavy rain. Each community has its own unique geography and climate, which may make flooding worse. In addition to those risks, extreme rainfall events have gotten more frequent as global temperatures rise.

I work with A Center on the University of Michigan This helps communities transform climate knowledge into projects that may reduce the damage of future climate disasters. Flooding events like those within the Houston area provide case studies that can assist cities in all places address increasing risk.

The risk of flooding is increasing

The very first thing the recent floods show us is that the climate is changing.

In the past, it may need made sense to view a flood as a rare and random event—communities could easily rebuild. But the statistical distribution of weather events and natural disasters is shifting.

What may need been a 1-in-500-year event could turn out to be a 1-in-100-year event on the option to a 1-in-50-year event. When Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in 2017, it also took Houston with it Third 500-year flood inside three years.

Fundamental physics points to the increasing risks: global greenhouse gas emissions are resulting in a rise in global average temperatures. Warming results in increased precipitation and heavier rainfall, in addition to increased flooding potential, especially when storms hit already saturated ground.

Communities should not prepared

The recent floods also reveal weaknesses within the design and management of communities.

Plaster is a Main contributor to urban flooding since the water can’t be absorbed and drains away quickly. The frequent flooding within the Houston area highlights the risks. Its impermeable surfaces expanded by 386 square miles According to data between 1997 and 2017 collected by Rice University. More roads, parking lots and buildings meant more standing water and fewer places for rainwater to sink.

If infrastructure is well designed and maintained, flood damage may be significantly reduced. However, researchers have increasingly found that the technical specifications for drainage pipes and other infrastructure vary not sufficient to address the increasing intensity of storms and rainfall. That can result in this Roads are being washed out and communities are being cut off. Failure to take care of infrastructure resembling levees and storm drains is a typical reason for flooding.

Reservoirs are also a necessary a part of flood management within the Houston area. and lots of were at capability of persistent rain. This forced the managers to accomplish that release more water when the storms hit.

For a coastal metropolis just like the Houston-Galveston region rapidly rising sea levels may additionally reduce downstream water management capability. These various aspects mix to extend the danger of flooding and highlight the necessity to not only move water but in addition find secure places to store it.

The increasing risks not only affect technical standards, but in addition Zoning laws that regulate where houses may be built and constructing regulations, which describe minimum standards for safety in addition to permitting and environmental regulations.

By addressing these issues now, communities can anticipate and forestall harm, slightly than reacting when it is simply too late.

Four lessons from case studies

The diverse impacts of flooding show why a holistic approach to climate change planning is essential and what communities can learn from one another. For example, case studies show that:

• It is difficult for a person or a community to handle even the technical facets of flood preparation alone – there is simply too much interconnectedness. However, protective measures resembling dikes or canals could protect a district increase the danger of flooding downstream. Planners should discover the suitable regional scale, resembling your complete catchment area of ​​a stream or river, and establish vital relationships early within the planning process.

• Natural disasters and the way in which communities reply to them may also increase inequalities in wealth and resources. Social justice and ethical considerations have to be included within the planning firstly.

Learning to cope with complexity

In Communities my colleagues and I even have worked withWe have seen increasing awareness of the challenges of climate change and increasing flood risks.

In most cases, local officials' initial instinct was to guard property and carry on without changing where people lived. However, this might only buy time for some areas before people have time no alternative but to maneuver.

As a lot of these communities examine their vulnerabilities, they’re increasingly recognizing the connections between zoning, storm drains and parks that may capture runoff, for instance. They are also starting to acknowledge the importance of engaging regional stakeholders to avoid fragmented adaptation efforts that would worsen conditions for neighboring areas.

This is an updated version of an article originally published on August 25, 2022.