by David Chiang (class of 2021, Natural Sciences Division)
People are typically most familiar with the concept of the river, a clear freshwater watercourse that flows towards another body of water with a strong current. Throughout history, humans have founded their great civilizations next to these significant waterworks; a wolf pulled Romulus out the Tiber to found the world-renown empire Rome, the Nile was perceived as the separation between life and the afterlife by the ancient Egyptians, and American novelist Mark Twain writes about Huckleberry Finn floating down the Mississippi on nothing but a raft. It is evident that rivers play a crucial role history and cultures all over the world, but for the city of Houston, another unique water source takes the center stage: the bayou. Differing from a typical river, the bayous are seen as extremely slow-paced courses of water with the slightest change in tide being able to shift the current in opposite directions. Bayous are collections of water from numerous sources, from natural springs, rivers, underground waterways, and surface run-off, and are found in flat, low-lying areas, making them unique to the Gulf-Coast region of the United States. Houston’s history is entwined with the existence of bayous, with the Allen Brothers deciding to build the city in the vicinity of the Buffalo Bayou, gradually earning the city the name” Port of Houston” as trade flourished on the bayou to the Gulf. To this day, the bayous surrounding Houston play an important role in flood control, and bayous continue to adapt to rising water levels through erosion of their natural banks. If protected and left to its natural course, bayous serve as the natural guardian of Houston to extreme weather events like Harvey, and recognizing the significance of these bodies of water is the first step the community needs to take as citizens of the Port of Houston.
The significance of water to humanity has been observed throughout the archives of history, and the city of Houston is no different, with the establishment of the city rising from the purchase of the land next to the Buffalo Bayous by the Allen brothers in the 1830s. “Freight wagons and railroad from the fertile Brazos River country converged on the little town, carrying cotton and hides bound for Galveston. Before long, the chamber of commerce began advertising Houston as the place “where 17 railroads meet the sea. Never mind that the Gulf of Mexico was 50 miles away” (Visit Houston). When the first steamboat arrived into Houston via the Buffalo Bayous in 1944, the docks was proudly coined the “Port of Houston,” a name that still thrives today. Water has always played a significant role in Houston life, but the more we neglect to respect this fact, the more nature will work to remind us. With the advent of concrete in 1937, Houston has developed an unconscious effort to push water out. Rain and snowfall no longer soaks back into the Earth, but becomes a runoff on the flat surfaces of asphalt and concrete that is channeled by humans to leave the landscape. “According to Georgia Institute of Technology Bruce Stiftel, who is chair of the school of city and regional planning and an expert in environmental and water policy governance, stormwater management usually entails channeling water away from impervious surfaces and the structures built atop them. In other words, cities are built on the assumption that the water that would have been absorbed back into the land they occupy can be transported away instead” (The Atlantic). This concept of discarding nature is imbedded in humanity’s lustprinzip and immediate gratification. Especially in the United States where for most part of its history was to conquer the unknown frontier, “The hardest part of managing urban flooding is reconciling it with Americans’ insistence that they can and should be able to live, work, and play anywhere. Waterborne transit was a key driver of urban development, and it’s inevitable that cities have grown where flooding is prevalent. But there are some regions that just shouldn’t become cities. Parts of Houston in the floodway, parts of New Orleans submerged during Katrina, parts of Florida—these places never should have been developed in the first place” (The Atlantic). Before any grand infrastructure overhaul should take place, there should be discourse with the Houston public about a reconnection with nature and Houston’s origins, whether through organized kayaking trips in public education or the promotion of national parks and hikes. As my colleague as found, “A study published in the journal BioScience found that exposure to nature correlates with higher community cohesion, potentially offering a remedy for the individualist mentality promoted by access to the Internet and social media. This suggests that, in order to improve community cohesion, increase communal responsibility, and perhaps re-establish faith in possible remedies, we ought to focus on introducing youth to nature from an early age, to foster love and strong connections with our waterways” (Institute Gulf Coast). The Houston community needs to be in the same mindset before working together to deal with the flood management problems plaguing the city.
So the question arises whether humans should relocate or continue to rebuild in the same locations after these catastrophic events. The more concrete that humans place around the waterways, the more water levels will continue to rise and destroy the surrounding property. From kayaking, I have learned how hard it was to row against the current, so I know personally that struggling against nature is inevitably futile and damaging to both parties. While there are plans implemented in Houston to prevent flooding from happening again like Sspeed and Ike Dike, they are not yet implemented, and I cannot help but think that they are only band-aid solutions that will only cause the tides to rise even higher to overcome these artificial obstacles. However, Houston is a dense city, so it may be hard to just relocate since so much industry and lifestyle is based around an urban lifestyle.
Therefore, it must be prudent to look for possible development design that complies with Mother Nature while providing the necessary housing and resources for the Houston population. Perhaps better drainage infrastructure needs to be established, but I feel the need for natural space around bayous and natural river ways may be more important. If we leave a certain space around the bayous, they will have a chance to expand and lessen the damage of natural catastrophes. A good example is Holland “Although the project uses different measures to do so, the main idea of Room for the River is to return the natural floodplains to the river… instead of simply building higher dikes, people living along the riverbanks are moved further inland and the land is reclaimed as spongy wetlands. This creates a natural water storage system that also supports biodiversity, recreation and increases the aesthetic value of these areas… today, these innovative ideas are being embraced as the best long-term solution to rising water levels and increasingly powerful storms” (Next City). This is very plausible for the city of Houston, since city is located on the Gulf Coastal Plain biome and is built on many natural marshes and swamp areas that are ideal for absorbing water .The only problem of implementation is reclaiming land back from the people for natural use, which again ties to the idea of retying the public back to its natural roots, and the city has already begun moving in this direction. With the revitalization of the Buffalo Bayou Park in1986, local Houstonians increasingly enjoy the presence of the bayous through numerous hiking and biking trails, and some even kayak to share a more intimate relationship with the water.
Another possible implementation would be something like China’s sponge cities. In an urban water management program implemented in China in 2014 in 16 different cities, China sought to relieve flood inundation and water shortage situation. What is unique about this project was that it was funded by the national government, but also by local government and private sectors, making it a unique project that is supported by a unified community, a step that Houston needs to take to move forward. “The new SPC [sponge city project] construction aims to relieve cities’ water shortage situation to avoid the forest, lake, wetland occupation and breaking the natural water cycle. The stormwater could be reused through the construction of natural storage, natural infiltration and natural depuration facilities during the SPC construction… The SPC concept indicates that a city could be functioned as a sponge that has great resilience to environmental changes and natural disasters” (Research Gate). This research project took into account 16 different cities with differing geographic, hydrologic, and economical characteristics, and as such Houston can also be implemented with the similar ideologies, in my opinion.
This piece has been crafted with all of the knowledge I have accumulated from my peers and instructor this past semester. Perhaps what triggered this wave of intellectual curiosity and stimulation was the catastrophe of Hurricane Harvey on the Houston coast last year. Roy Scranton calls this “weird weather,” and he projects that a major hurricane hits the Texan coastline every six years on average (New York Times). I used to think that the Gulf of Mexico was just like any other coastline having been raised in California for most of my life, but taking on the lens of Jim Blackburn, the Gulf is unique in which we can take on an eye-level engagement, which cannot be done from the hills and buffs on the California coastline (A Texas Plan for a Texas Coast). In order to help us envision an eye-level type of engagement with water, Dr. Comer took us kayaking, an experience that ultimately helped build up my understanding that the coast is part of us, part of Houston, and part of Texas. The coast protects us, and we have to protect the coast. This sort of personal investment in water and the other parts of nature is crucial to instill in younger generations, and having representative government that exposes younger generations to nature will in turn advocate a push to take care of nature-study. Once this gap in public knowledge has diminished, Houston can begin to enact the some parts of the public policies mentioned in the case studies above, taking back land for natural use, building infrastructure around natural water cycles. I urge everyone to go out and try kayaking, and once you feel the current push alongside your paddle, you will understand that nature is all around us, part of us, and ultimately is crucial for the public’s humanity.