Sustainable responses of an urban park for disaster resilience: a case study of hurricane harvey

ABSTRACT

Registering as one of the most costly storms in the U.S., Hurricane Harvey resulted in massive damages along the Texas coast with catastrophic winds and storm surges from record rainfall totals and flood-related deterioration in August of 2017. While several studies have contributed to shed light on factors of housing, environmental justice, and engineering processes with regard to Hurricane Harvey impacts, contributions of a holistic sustainable approach including environmental, economic, and social systems have been under-explored. Our research aims to examine these three pillars with regard to flood mitigation strategies in the case of Hurricane Harvey by examining Buffalo Bayou Park in Houston. The research findings show that the park enhances biodiversity remarkably, sequesters 9.19 tons of atmospheric carbon, and intercepts 84,000 gallons of stormwater runoff annually. It contributes to economic benefits as well as improves access to the park within a 10-minute walk to almost 40,000 residents and promotes cultural value and public health outputs as demonstrated by over 90% of survey respondents regarding the quality of life and sense of well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Flood mitigation
• Hurricane Harvey
• Sustainability
• Disaster Resilience
• Urban Parks

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Landscape Architecture Foundation.