HARVEY-RELATED ACTIVITIES
HARVEY-RELATED ACTIVITIES
HARVEY-RELATED ACTIVITIES
Hurricane Harvey made landfall on August 25, 2017 near Corpus Christi, Texas. Over the next five days the storm devastated the Texas coast, dropping over 36 inches of rain over 2500 sq mi area and causing unprecedented levels of damage. Harvey is likely the costliest storm in U.S. history, exceeding Hurricane Katrina. Life-threatening flooding in the City of Houston and surrounding areas caught the world’s attention.
Hurricane Harvey made landfall on August 25, 2017 near Corpus Christi, Texas. Over the next five days the storm devastated the Texas coast, dropping over 36 inches of rain over 2500 sq mi area and causing unprecedented levels of damage. Harvey is likely the costliest storm in U.S. history, exceeding Hurricane Katrina. Life-threatening flooding in the City of Houston and surrounding areas caught the world’s attention.
Hurricane Harvey made landfall on August 25, 2017 near Corpus Christi, Texas. Over the next five days the storm devastated the Texas coast, dropping over 36 inches of rain over 2500 sq mi area and causing unprecedented levels of damage. Harvey is likely the costliest storm in U.S. history, exceeding Hurricane Katrina. Life-threatening flooding in the City of Houston and surrounding areas caught the world’s attention.
Severe Storm Prediction, Education, & Evacuation from Disasters Center
SSPEED's 12th Conference
Flood Protection Strategies: Infrastructure Solutions for Resilient Communities
November 6-7, 2025
Please join us this November for SSPEED's 12th conference, where over thirty top academic, consulting and governmental experts will present on a wide variety of topics. This two-day event will be located at the Anderson-Clarke Center (Glasscock School of Continuing Studies) at Rice University.
Day 1 will include a detailed update on the Galveston Bay Park Plan (GBPP), a review of Nature-based Solutions, including presentations from Dutch experts, and a MaapNext update from Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD). Results from our earlier workshop on NBS will be presented in the conference. The SSPEED Center has worked since 2016 on the preliminary design and evaluation of the GBPP. SSPEED was recently funded for more detailed designs by the City of Houston, Port of Houston, and Harris County along with a gift from Mr. Joe Swinbank. The final report and executive summary are finished and will be on our web site by May 15, 2025. Finally, we are very excited to have HCFCD present the methods and some preliminary findings from the MaapNext effort for Harris County floodplain remodeling using HEC-RAS 2D.
Day 2 of this year's conference will spotlight the emerging nature-based carbon market, intersecting ecological stewardship and economic innovation. Since our initial Houston Endowment funding, the SSPEED Center has conducted extensive carbon market research, partnering with the Baker Institute to launch BCarbon, a landowner-oriented, science-backed non-profit carbon registry. Expert-led sessions will examine four critical domains: soil carbon sequestration, forest carbon storage, coastal blue carbon, and abandoned/orphaned well plugging. These market mechanisms unlock substantial private capital while advancing ecological preservation, flood resilience, water resource security, and other benefits. Attendees will gain a wider understanding of the transformative opportunities and practical challenges within carbon markets, essential to corporate sustainability frameworks and the broader energy transition. Understanding these market-based approaches is fundamental to creating resilient systems for our most urgent environmental challenges.
More to come...