What can be done to stop deadly floods?
By Harriet Festing
Updated 8:52 AM ET, Wed May 27, 2015
Click here to view more:http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/27/opinions/festing-stop-urban-floodinghouston/index.html
Harriet Festing directs RainReady at the Center for
Neighborhood Technology, a national nonprofit organization.
Started as a partnership with the city of Chicago, RainReady
helps communities across the United States find solutions to too
much or too little water through improved planning, technology
innovation and implementation. Festing is the lead author of
"The Prevalence and Cost of Urban Flooding" and the recently
published report, RainReady Nation. The opinions expressed in
this commentary are hers.
(CNN)The deadly rainfall that has left many parts of Houston
underwater has happened before and can happen again -- not
only in Texas but other cities that are unprepared. Houston has
been known to flood even in moderately heavy rains -- some of
its roads are designed to collect large pools of water when the
city's drainage gets overwhelmed, which happens pretty often.
And some parts of the city received an enormous amount of rain
-- more than 11 inches.
Houston is a pretty flat city in a subtropical climate just barely
above sea level. Under those circumstances, realistically
flooding may be unavoidable, even though the city is taking
steps through its RebuildHouston initiative to improve the
drainage system and address problem flooding areas.
But the fact remains that in some cities even just a few inches of
rain can result in flooded basements and washed-out roads.
Why? Because the way we have built cities makes them flood.
When we pave over absorbent dirt and grasses, rainwater runs
off asphalt and concrete and often ends up overwhelming
drainage systems and, in severe cases, flooding homes. The
more impervious surfaces a city has, the more likely it is that it
will suffer from urban flooding. Sprawling, heavily paved cities
such as Houston can be especially vulnerable.
The Center for Neighborhood Technology analyzed National
Weather Service data in 10 major cities across the United States,
including Houston's Harris County. We found that the residents
in the county faced 145 flood warnings and alerts between 2007
and 2011 -- that's one every 12 days. Our research has also
determined that flooding can happen in areas that are least
expected -- for example, our study of urban flooding in Cook
County, Illinois, home to Chicago, analyzed data on insurance
payouts for flood damage from 2007 to 2011 and found that
97% of Cook County's ZIP codes experienced flooding, even if
they were far from designated flood plains. Indeed some of the
ZIP codes with the highest payouts had no flood plains in them
at all.
Climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of
rainstorms in much of the country. According to the federal U.S.
Global Change Research Program, the type of heavy rainstorms
that currently occur once every 20 years could happen at least
twice as often in Southern states such as Texas if an aggressive
emissions reduction program isn't implemented. In other parts of
the country, these storms could become up to seven times more
frequent. Severe storms that now happen every 20 years could
come every four years by 2100.
As the threat of climate change escalates, cities and regions must
get serious about finding solutions. Our priority is to identify
those solutions that bring quick relief to flood-prone homes, are
affordable and effective: This requires a coordinated program of
investment across private and public property, to help upgrade
homes and streets to make them resilient to wet weather events.
The Center for Neighborhood Technology created its RainReady
program as a municipal-scale initiative designed to bring
communities together to find solutions to the problems of too
much or too little water. We've brought together property
owners, municipal officials and stormwater drainage experts to
identify a community's highest-priority drainage issues and
determine the best set of strategies for minimizing property, yard
and street flooding and the damage that comes with it.
Investments in natural and nature-based infrastructure to
increase infiltration and collect rain where it falls, also known as
green infrastructure, play a strong role in the RainReady
program. Green infrastructure can, in some applications, be a
more cost-effective approach than conventional stormwater
infrastructure, and it can provide a whole set of benefits that
"gray infrastructure" does not, including improved water and air
quality, groundwater recharge, reduced stormwater runoff
volume, additional wildlife habitat and recreational space and
increased land values.
Coordinated landscaping, plumbing and building improvements
for properties include backwater valves, downspout
disconnection into dry wells and flood walls; runoff from alleys
and parking lots can be captured through the installation of
permeable pavement, trees and landscaped sidewalks; temporary
water storage can be created from ponds, parks, urban forests
and wetlands; and rain sensor networks can provide enhanced
monitoring and flood alert systems for communities.
Building a resilient future needs to start now. Legislation such as
the Urban Flooding Awareness Act, passed in Illinois last
summer and currently being introduced at the federal level by
Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Illinois, and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois,
is an important first step in assessing the scope of the problem.
To avoid flooding devastation takes planning and foresight but
also constant monitoring. The fact of the matter is, once a heavy
rainstorm hits, there's little a city can do to prevent flooding.
Most preventative measures must be in place in preparation for
these storms, because when the skies open up, all we can do is
watch and learn where flooding is happening. Residents can play
an important role in this monitoring by reporting pools of water
hanging around long after the rains have gone to their
municipalities.
While flooding may not be entirely preventable, that doesn't
mean it has to be catastrophic. There are lessons we can learn
from Houston and steps we should be taking to prepare for and
mitigate devastating impacts that the coming rainstorms can
bring.
For Extemporaneous Speakers, complete this page but do not file this page in the box only the article!!!
Instructions: Answer by thinking about ethical, political, and economic impacts.
QUESTIONS:
1. Would you choose to live in an area prone to flooding?
Why or why not?
2. What does Houston do to prevent/deal with flash
flooding? Have these actions proven effective?
3. Conduct research to discover who is responsible for
flood prevention and the cleanup efforts after a flood?
Is it a city, state, or national government’s
responsibility?
4. People who live by rivers have been victims of floods
long before global warming. Why would anyone build a
home by a river?
Click here to view more:http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/27/opinions/festing-stop-urban-floodinghouston/index.html