Community Centric Flood Resilience

PROJECT STATEMENT

Vulnerability and resilience to hazards is increasingly important in a world with more extreme weather patterns and a global occurrence of technological disasters. Low housing price and high number of buyout areas & damaged structures pose a significant threat for flooding and low water quality, in greens watershed validating the dire need of community-oriented resilient architecture. My proposal revolves around exploring strategies for highly vulnerable Greens watershed to help the community recover and rebound from disasters. Strategies can help design a community-based transformation into an engaging and ecologically healthy waterway & valued public space for communities in urgent need.

PROJECT NARRATIVE

EVALUATION CRITERIA
During Hurricane Harvey, Harris county was flooded with 1 trillion gallons of water within 3 days which is enough to cover the entire Harris county 33 inches deep. Even in the past Harris county has faced serious flooding and after effects of it. During Hurricane Harvey,70,000 structures were flooded, 37,000 people were affected in Harris county. Increasing population of Harris county keeps it under constant threat of such flooding events. The city of Houston has 13 watersheds with bayous flowing along each watershed. Greens watershed has 300 miles of open stream with Greens as the primary bayou and Halls as its sub-bayou. The Damage map of Houston highlight how the Greens watershed has maximum numbers of damaged structures as compared to other watersheds in 100-year floodplain from starting Alison,2001 to Harvey, 2017.Greens Watershed is 200 sq miles in area with population of approx. 52,000 people during Harvey it faced economic loss of $69500000. On a county level 25 % of the buyouts and 16 % of the flood houses fall within Greens Watershed. Being one of the most vulnerable community in Harris county due to blight areas, low income population and under developed land due it only has 8% of the total county budget to fix the damage for hurricane Harvey.

PROJECT GOALS
The goal of this proposal is to explore strategies to help design a community oriented resilient architecture. Helping the communities in times of distress and help them with the aftermath of flooding. With so many Bayous flowing in Houston it is important to develop and design harmonizing with nature and water. Increasing population of the Harris county makes it important to develop policies and promote Blue Urbanism. Because the causes and effects of flooding vary, it is important to treat water accordingly. Based on my precedents and prospects study, water can be retained in small patches, detained with network of detention plazas and artificial streams and sustained into big compartments of water. Buffalo Bayou park in Houston is an example of how a park can be used to let the water fan out without battling against it. The Water plaza in Netherlands explains how detention plaza can be open to public and can add value in the community but at the same be an asset during floods. The Copenhagen case study talk about small measure like biosales and LID technique that can be implemented at community level. However, it is important to understand the context of a place before applying any specific strategies. There is no direct answer to the problem of flooding.

DESIGN PROCESS, ANALYSIS, IMPLEMENTATION
Next, to understand the flooding in Greens watershed, a comparative analysis was performed of the inundation levels, flood plain map overlapped with the land use map. On understanding the different layers and flow direction of the water it was concluded that the inundation increases from upstream to downstream, downstream being the industrial area receiving the back flow of the water from Houston Ship channel and causing over 10 ft of inundation. Residential midstream communities faced flooding between 5-10 ft. and there was minimum flooding upstream of 1-5ft surrounded by ranch lands. The 3 different scenarios upstream – midstream – downstream lead to designing of super levee that modifies according to the situation upstream to downstream. Intervention of a super levee along the Greens bayou can help the communities from flooding. Different flood levels associated with land use land use and change is direction of water makes the levee wider downstream and narrow upstream. In addition to that a design toolkit needs to be implemented. Small patches of green strategies like bioswales and rain garden can be integrated with upstream levee. Network of detention plaza, flood-able parks along with elevated housing can detain water midstream. Big compartments of super levee can sustain water with the help of revetments and living shorelines. The humans are less involved with the levee in areas of heavy inundation. As we move from upstream to downstream the development gap increases. Upstream being most developed as compared to downstream. Downstream Levee can be used as bio-habitats with minimum human interaction. The design intervention ties in with the proposed intervention of the county. With increase in inundation and storm surge the retain and detain solutions will not be viable 20 years down the line as super levee can handle up to 20 ft. of water. The tool kits bioswales, detention plazas, living shorelines, rain gardens will not only flood proof the watershed but can also be utilized by community. Such tool kits can be modified and developed as a prototype for other watersheds in Houston.

Introduction
The Damage Map of Houston highlights how the Greens Watershed has maximum numbers of damaged structures as compared to other watersheds in the 100-year floodplain from Hurricanes Alison (2001) to Harvey (2017). The increasing population of Harris county maintains a constant threat of such flooding events.

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Problem Statement
Low housing costs and high number of buyout areas and damaged structures pose a significant threat for flooding and low water quality in Greens Watershed, validating the dire need of community-oriented resilient architecture.

Precedents & Prospects
The goal of this proposal is to explore strategies for community-oriented resilient architecture. With so many bayous flowing into Houston, it is important to develop and design by harmonizing with nature and water.

Design Interventions
The inundation increases from upstream to downstream, downstream being the industrial area receiving the back flow of the water from Houston Ship channel and causing over 10 ft. of inundation. Residential midstream communities faces flooding between 5-10 ft. and there is minimum flooding upstream of 1-5ft. surrounded by ranch lands.

Super Levee
Intervention of a super levee along the Greens bayou can help the communities from flooding. Different flood levels and change is direction of water makes the levee wider downstream and narrow upstream. Because of different land use associated with different inundation levels, an additional design toolkit needs to be implemented.

Design Strategy
The 3 different scenarios upstream – midstream – downstream lead to designing of super levee that modifies according to the situation upstream to downstream. To retain water and filter it upstream along the ranch lands , detain and store the water mid stream and provide community spaces. Sustain maximum water downstream to prevent backflow and giving water the space to accommodate.

Adaptive Pathways Planning
The design intervention ties in with the proposed intervention of the county. With increase in inundation and storm surge the retain and detain solutions will not be viable 20 years down the line as super levee can handle up-to 20 ft. of water.

Transect Plan Development
Retain : Upstream

Small patches of green strategies can be integrated to filter and retain runoff.

Detain : Midstream

Network of detention areas can hold back and delay the flooding downstream

Sustain : Downstream

Big compartments of super levee can sustain water upstream flooding and tidal surge

Transect Sections
The 3 sections show how the humans are less involved with the levee in areas of heavy inundation we move from upstream to downstream the development gap increases. Upstream being most developed as compared to downstream. Downstream levee can be used as bio-habitats with minimum human interaction.

Sustain
The perspective focuses on levee used as bio-habitat and how the levee will be treated as a protective tool for the industrial areas.

Detain
The perspective focuses on how the detention areas and flood-able parks in residential community can be utilized to rebound from disaster and can be an asset for the community.