Just Paraphrasing

 

SCIENTIFIC METHOD

For this first homework, I want you to read the following article from 2016 about Houston’s vulnerability to flooding. Hurricane Harvey utterly wreaked havoc in one of the largest cities in the USA. Was it predictable? Yes. How much did the policy makers rely on or avoid scientific input? How credible is the science? What patterns and models are involved in flooding prediction? How has the ‘human element’ impacted the vulnerability of Houston?

This is an important and current environmental issue that clearly bridges science as well as policy. Please read the online article and answer the following questions with typed out answers. I would like you to submit your homework by Thursday, February 8th at 11:59pm through Blackboard.

Link:

https://projects.propublica.org/houston-cypress/

Boomtown, Flood Town. (ProPublica, The Texas Tribune)

Questions:

Why do scientists think that climate change will bring more “frequent and fierce rainstorms” to Houston? Be specific.

What do the Flood Control officials feel is the best solution to prepare for flooding?

What is the scientific evidence discussed in this story to support claims that overdevelopment will lead to increased flooding?

What is “Urban Flooding”? Don’t Google it, use your own words, paraphrasing the story.

What is the problem with using historical data to plan for the future, in this case?

Give examples of data presented in this article. How did this data support the science to you, as a reader?

How has the value of the reservoirs been changed since they were built? How much of this is due to development?

How have other major cities planned for climate change and flooding? Give some examples. 

Attached is a document with the questions in bold and the answers from the article below I need you to re read the answers and paraphrase them. You can cut or add any information as you like as long as you address the questions. 

I need the document in 1-2 Hrs MAX!!!

This is the link for the article needed: https://projects.propublica.org/houston-cypress/

Why

do scientists think that climate change will bring more “frequent and fierce rainstorms” to Houston? Be specific.

Because scientists believe that climate change is causing more torrential rainfall to happen. Which means that storms and other events which was considered unlikely to happen, occur more often nowadays.

What do the Flood Control officials feel is the best solution to prepare for flooding?

Some Flood Control officials suggests to get rid of all habitable buildings in the 100-year floodplain. And many cities are also realizing they must prepare for more severe rainfall.

biggest challenge is not managing rapid growth but retrofitting outdated infrastructure. Current standards that govern how and where developers and residents can build are mostly sufficient, they say. And all the recent monster storms are freak occurrences — not harbingers of global warming or a sign of things to come.

What is the scientific evidence discussed in this story to support claims that over development will lead to increased flooding?

officials say the amount of water that accumulates in the reservoirs during big storms has increased substantially in recent decades, and takes longer to drain out. That’s because much of the open space around them has been covered with non-absorbent concrete.

What is “Urban Flooding”? Don’t Google it, use your own words, paraphrasing the story.

“urban flooding.” The phenomenon refers to flooding outside of any known floodplain — in this case, outside the 100-year floodplain, which triggers insurance requirements, or the 500-year floodplain, which has a 1 in 500 chance of flooding in any given year.

What is the problem with using historical data to plan for the future, in this case?

There are many ways to measure the frequency of rare storms in an area. The Harris County Flood Control District does so by tracking rainfall totals for the entire county within a 24-hour period. Based on that data, which dates back to 1989, the county has been hit with eight rare storms.
Five of those storms are considered to have a 1 in 100 chance of occurring each year, including the rains that hit in May of this year. Another three are considered to be even rarer, including the Tax Day storm in April of this year.
The flood control district could not provide data in time for this story on rainfall that occurred over a 12-hour period, rather than a 24-hour period. But it nevertheless confirmed that the number of rare storms would be higher. (Enough rain fell during the Memorial Day 2015 storm over 12 hours to classify it as a 100-year event.)
But Talbott doesn’t think Houston’s most recent back-to-back torrential floods are indicative of climate change, or that studying its potential impacts should be a priority for the Harris County Flood Control District.

Give examples of data presented in this article. How did this data support the science to you, as a reader?

How has the value of the reservoirs been changed since they were built? How much of this is due to development?

In 2001, 28 percent of the land in the Addicks watershed was developed. By 2010, it was 41 percent. And Virginia Hammond’s home is perched on the northern edge of the reservoir .
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built Addicks and its counterpart, Barker Reservoir, in the 1940s after back-to-back mega storms put downtown Houston underwater. At the time, the Army Corps had a singular mission: to protect Houston, which was then some 15 miles away from the reservoirs. But 70 years later, achieving that goal has become more difficult as Houston’s suburban sprawl has encroached on them.
During heavy rainfall, the Corps shutters conduits on the reservoir’s tall, earthen dams to keep a torrent of water from rushing down down Buffalo Bayou — a narrow, winding waterway that passes through downtown on its way to the coast.
The reservoirs are dry most of the time, covered in woods and parkland. But Army Corps officials say the amount of water that accumulates in the reservoirs during big storms has increased substantially in recent decades, and takes longer to drain out. That’s because much of the open space around them has been covered with non-absorbent concrete.
When those pools get too large, the Army Corps is forced into a precarious balancing act where it has to keep just enough water inside the reservoirs to protect areas downstream while also releasing enough water so that surrounding neighborhoods, including Hammond’s subdivision, aren’t flooded.
“We’re between a rock and a hard place,” said Richard K. Long, who helps oversee the day-to-day operation of Addicks and Barker for the Corps.
In an ideal world, neighborhoods like Hammond’s wouldn’t exist, he acknowledged.

How have other major cities planned for climate change and flooding? Give some examples.

Other cities are trying those approaches. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, Berginnis pointed out, plans to eventually get rid of all habitable buildings in the 100-year floodplain. And many cities are also realizing they must prepare for more severe rainfall.
In Florida, the City of Fort Lauderdale’s recent vision plan includes an entire chapter on climate change preparedness and resiliency. And Broward County, where Fort Lauderdale is located, strictly regulates development in areas that are pegged to be at or below sea level in the future, said Nancy Gassman, the city’s assistant public works director for sustainability. After Boulder, Colorado experienced horrible flooding in 2013, the city is working to redesign infrastructure with “permeable surfaces” — surfaces that can absorb some floodwater, as opposed to concrete — and leaving more open space. The idea is to do so not just with a “100-year flood” in mind, but a more rare flood, such as what happened three years ago.