Study Architecture 
ProPEL 
Author(s): Thomas Colbert
As the great hurricane of 1900 that destroyed the City of Galveston, the more recent Hurricane Ike, and innumerable other storms have shown the Houston-Galveston region is particularly vulnerable to flooding during extreme weather events. Approximately 1.2 million people live within current hurricane evacuation zones in the region and by 2035 an additional 700,000 people are expected to move into these high-risk areas. The Houston Ship Channel is also at serious risk due to sea level rise and increasing severe storm activity. The Ship Channel includes the nations second largest port, its most important collection of petrochemical plants, and is the center of a vast network of pipelines linking interdependent refineries and processing plants from New Orleans to Corpus Christy. Its inundation would have immediate consequences for the national economy.Research into sea level rise and the dynamics of severe weather events has allowed us to assess the exact nature of the risks to homes, businesses, infrastructure, and industries throughout the region. This work has enabled planning and design for a layered network of structural and non-structural alternatives for community and regional protection. Floodplain maps, land use, and related studies have outlined the requirements to be met in protecting the Houston-Galveston region against storm surge and flooding. They have also formed the basis for the development of a regional plan based on a comprehensive set of local coastal protection strategies. A full range of possible levee alignments and gate structures have been proposed to protect the economic heart of Galveston Island, communities along the western shore of Galveston Bay and the Clear Lake area and, of critical importance, the Port of Houston and industries located along the Houston Ship Channel. Non-structural protection strategies include the proposed million-acre Lone Star Coastal National Recreation Area, to be located along the Texas coastline from Matagorda Bay to High-Island. This paper will be focused on one aspect of the above-described proposals – the development of designs for structural protections for the Houston Ship Channel (including design proposals for the world’s largest tidal surge gate) and the adjacent heavily populated west shore of Galveston Bay. It will include discussion of a competing proposal for a single hundred-mile long barrier island levee. It will describe land use planning and the design of multi-functional infrastructure to not only protect but also to enhance communities. This paper will describe local proposals that respond to the global forces of climate change, sea level rise and continuing development. These design interventions, if adopted, will fundamentally alter the character and future development of an entire subtropical coastal region.
Volume Editors
Anthony Abbate, Francis Lyn & Rosemary Kennedy
ISBN
978-0-935502-90-9
