HARVEY-RELATED ACTIVITIES
HARVEY-RELATED ACTIVITIES
HARVEY-RELATED ACTIVITIES
Hurricane Harvey made landfall on August 25, 2017 near Corpus Christi, Texas. Over the next five days the storm devastated the Texas coast, dropping over 36 inches of rain over 2500 sq mi area and causing unprecedented levels of damage. Harvey is likely the costliest storm in U.S. history, exceeding Hurricane Katrina. Life-threatening flooding in the City of Houston and surrounding areas caught the world’s attention.
Hurricane Harvey made landfall on August 25, 2017 near Corpus Christi, Texas. Over the next five days the storm devastated the Texas coast, dropping over 36 inches of rain over 2500 sq mi area and causing unprecedented levels of damage. Harvey is likely the costliest storm in U.S. history, exceeding Hurricane Katrina. Life-threatening flooding in the City of Houston and surrounding areas caught the world’s attention.
Hurricane Harvey made landfall on August 25, 2017 near Corpus Christi, Texas. Over the next five days the storm devastated the Texas coast, dropping over 36 inches of rain over 2500 sq mi area and causing unprecedented levels of damage. Harvey is likely the costliest storm in U.S. history, exceeding Hurricane Katrina. Life-threatening flooding in the City of Houston and surrounding areas caught the world’s attention.
Severe Storm Prediction, Education, & Evacuation from Disasters Center
Harvey-Related Projects
Since Harvey, the SSPEED Center has completed mitigation projects on Greens Bayou, Cypress Creek, and White Oak Bayou with funding from the Greater Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium and the Katy Prairie with funding from the Katy Prairie Conservancy. More details can be found below.
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PI: Philip Bedient
Co-PI: Jamie Padgett (Rice), Jim Blackburn (Rice), Susan Rogers (University of Houston)
Postdocs: Antonia Sebastian and Andrew Juan
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Researchers at Rice University develop models and methods to help improve situational awareness of flood impacts on transportation infrastructure and access to critical facilities. Click here to learn more.
Flood Mitigation Potential of the Katy Prairie
The SSPEED Center is providing ongoing hydrologic analyses for the Katy Prairie Conservancy to quantify the current and future flood mitigation potential of conserved native coastal prairie in west Houston. Ultimately, the work hopes to provide information regarding natural flood mitigation alternatives and evaluate rainwater retention and detention ecosystem services inherent to coastal prairie in the region.
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(Photo by Don Pine)
Greater Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium
PI: Philip Bedient
Coupled Flood Alert System and Infrastructure Risk Modeling for White Oak Bayou
PI: Jamie E. Padgett, Ph.D.
Co-PI: Philip B. Bedient, Ph.D., P.E.
Postdoc: Andrew Juan, Ph.D.
The consortium's researchers are collaborating to compile, analyze, and share scientifically-informed data about flooding risk and mitigation opportunities. The consortium will be releasing reports and studies on an ongoing basis. For more information, please click here.
​Small-Scale Applications of Distributed Hydrologic Model Vflo® to Characterize Impacts from Mitigation Projects and Site-scale Re-development on Street-level Flooding
PI: Philip B. Bedient, Ph.D., P.E.
Team: Samuel Brody, Ph.D., P.E., Andrew Juan, Ph.D., Russell Blessing, & Avantika Gori
Evaluating the Impact of Recent Extreme Precipitation Events on Rainfall Risk Estimates Through Updated Extreme Value Analysis Methods
Rice Houston Engagement & Recovery Effort (HERE)
Rice Collaborators: Kathy Ensor, Philip Bedient, and Chris Hakkenberg
Overview: This analysis will leverage the most up-to-date data and methods to provide new design rainfall estimates that can aid engineers and infrastructure planners in developing a more flood-resilient city. This analysis will also quantify the increasing frequency of high-intensity events, which will better represent the true rainfall-risk in any given year.
Learning From Harvey: Temporal Evolution of Flooding and Transportation Accessibility
Rice Houston Engagement & Recovery Effort (HERE)
Rice Collaborators: Jamie Padgett, Philip Bedient, & James Elliot
Overview: This project will develop new understanding of the spatial and temporal evolution of flood risks on transportation accessibility for vulnerable communities in the Greater Houston region.
Affect of Climate Change on Future Harvey-like Hurricanes and the Implications for Houston
Rice Houston Engagement & Recovery Effort (HERE)
Rice Collaborators: Pedram Hassanzadeh, Phil Bedient, Daniel Cohan, & Laurence Yeung
Overview: This project will use the projections of future jet stream’s wind, sea-surface temperature, and sea level as input in the hurricane track and surge models to produce the first-ever quantitative estimates of the potential impact of climate change on flooding, storm surge, and air pollution in Houston.