REDUCING FLOOD RISK

IN THE HOUSTON/GALVES

TONREGION

PEOPLE 6 million and Growing4th largest city in the United States Job Creation ECONOMY2nd largest Petrochemical Complex in the world#1 Exporting region in the United States $110B with Regional

GDP of $450B$50 billion in private sector investment ENVIRONMENT7th largest estuary in the United StatesProduces more seafood than any other estuary except

Chesapeake BayLarge recreational boating and fishing communities in the United

states

THE REGION INVESTMENT/NATIONAL SECURITY

DAMAGES 3rd costliest hurricane in U.S. history behind Hurricane Andrew and Hurricane Katrina estimated $39 billion in U.S. damages

• No federal surge reduction strategies in Galveston Bay – money actively diverted to Sabine and Brazoria

• New GLO/USACE agreement to start standard USACE process with GLO providing 50% match

• USACE standard process has never produced a major project and Texas treatment is in stark contrast with other hard hit areas

COST OF AND RESPONSE TO IKE

Storm Event Area

State

PlanStudy Funds

Const.Funds

Other Funds

Public Laws

Exceptions from Regular Corps Process

Katrina

New Orleans Yes $20M $5B cost

shared$9.9B FCCE

109-62 (‘05)

109-148 (‘06)

109-234 (‘06)

110-28 (‘06)

110-252 (‘08)

110-329 (‘09)

111-32 (‘09)

Comprehensive Study at Full Federal Expense, $14.5B in projects constructed with NEPA performed after construction. Only $5B in construction shared 65F/35NF.

Katrina

Mississippi No $10M Future up

to $1.2B$439M FCCE

109-148 (‘06)

11-32 (‘09)

Comprehensive Study at Full Federal Expense, Cost Effective Projects in lieu of NED, No Incremental Benefit-to-Cost Analysis, completed in 24 months. Future Const. to be cost shared 65F/35NF.

Ike Galveston No None $9M46.4M FCCE/$217M O&M

None None

Sandy

New England District

No $50M

$3.4B with$2.9

B specifical

ly for CSRM

projects

$1.829B FCCE/O&M

113-2 (‘13)$20M Comprehensive Study at Full Federal Expense - Not a Decision Document, No NEPA, No recommendations.

EXCEPTIONS TO NORMAL USACE POLICY AND

FUNDING

Unique in US – all other hard-hit regions received special legislation for USACE-led efforts

A Texas A&M University-led research team has taken a leadership role in studying surge risk reduction

We stepped in and filled a vacuum With only local funding, lean and focusedFormed a quality research teamIncorporated the best practices world-wide,

in particular, innovative Dutch approaches

TEXAS A&M ROLE

ECONOMYDrs Bill Gilmer and Adam Perdue, Institute for Regional Forecasting, University of HoustonDrs Sam Brody, Wesley Highfield and Meri Davlasheridze, TAMUG

SURGE MODELING Drs Robert Whalin, Tom Richardson and Bruce Ebersole, Homeland Security Center of Excellence, Jackson State UniversityDr Jeff Melby, USACE/Engineering Research & Development Center

BARRIER DESIGNDr Bas Jonkman, Delft Technical UniversityDr Jens Figlus, TAMUG Drs Galen Newman and Eric Bardenhagen, Landscape Architecture, TAMU

OVERALL FLOOD RISK REDUCTION/PROJECT COORDINATION/ PUBLIC OUTREACH/DATA AND INFORMATION ACCESSIBILITY

Dr Sam Brody, COL Len Waterworth and Dr Bill Merrell, TAMUG

TAMUG RESEARCH TEAM

Coastal Spine

Galveston Island

Bolivar Peninsula

Bolivar Roads

Intracoastal Waterway

• San Luis Pass

Existing Seawall

High Island

Houston Ship Channel

CITIES AND ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORTING THE IKE DIKE

CONCEPT

International Maritime Advisory Committee of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership

Bay Area Coastal Protection Alliance formed

Endorsements from East Harris County Manufacturers Association (130 companies), 25 municipalities, 15 regional organizations

WIDE PUBLIC SUPPORT

5-year, $3.6 million project on flood risk reduction along the Galveston Bay Awarded Last Week

Same partners as Ike Dike – verifies the team’s quality

Houston/Galveston region is now the nation’s test bed for flood risk reduction research and outreach

Organizing research to achieve the NSF-mandated role of changing US national policy

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION PROGRAM - FLOOD RISK REDUCTION

Continue to advance the Ike Dike concept as the basis to go forward more quickly with the federal project when authorized and to help seek legislation similar to other hard hit areas

Seek state funding to bridge ongoing privately-funded applied research effort with nationally-funded basic research effort

Pioneer cutting-edge spatial data display tools and techniques in both our research and public outreach

OTHER NEXT STEPS