The Buffalo Bayou Partnership, in conjunction with the City of Houston, Harris County, and Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) has co-sponsored a $1.4 million master planning program for the Buffalo Bayou corridor. The eight-mile long, one-mile wide scope of concern extends from Shepherd Drive to the Turning Basin, an area of approximately 6,400 square acres. Led by the Thompson Design Group of Boston, the consultant team is completing the fifth phase of a seven-phase planning program. The results of this 14-month study, including program recommendations, will be included within the team’s final report, to be completed in May of this year.

Over the last several months, the consultant team has met with and received input from multiple public and private agencies, neighborhood coalitions, and citizen groups regarding what issues face both the regional community and those that live and work within the Buffalo Bayou corridor.

Plan recommendations address a spectrum of issues, ranging from multi-modal transportation improvements, to environmental and hydrological considerations (water quality, flood level reduction), to brownfields remediation and adaptive reuse of historic properties. As a result, the plan is comprehensive in scope, strategic in focus and implementation-oriented. Based on five-, 10- and 20-year time horizons, the plan integrates proposed improvements in a manner that provides synergy among elements, and an outcome that is greater than the sum of individual projects. The consultant team provides hard economic / market analytical data to support and outline tangible quantifiable and qualifiable benefits for each recommendation.

Several over-arching principles guide plan recommendations and direct implementation strategies. These include balancing conservation and development, ensuring equity of access to the bayou corridor, restoring the bayou to an ecologically functioning system, and promoting joint public-private development. For the purposes of this report, hydrology-related elements of the plan will be reviewed to illustrate the application of these and other planning principles.

In order to improve the floodwater conveyance capacity of the bayou, the consultant team looked to the historical fluvial systems and processes associated with the Buffalo Bayou and other riparian corridors within the coastal margin. The team proposes regrading the bayou banks and adjacent slopes in key areas in order to increase its capacity to contain floodwater. A new “floodplain,” within the channel, will be terraced and landscaped to emulate an environment similar to a bottomland, mixed hardwood, riparian ecosystem. Fluvial features such as oxbows, ponds, and wetland sloughs will be designed to detain water for biological treatment as well as to recharge the groundwater system. To mitigate sediment accretion, existing storm water outfalls will be realigned to flush water through wetland areas. These fabricated wetland areas will be maintained to provide new habitat for additional species of native riparian flora and fauna.

Although it is not a new idea, in the wake of tropical storm Allison, it is the appropriate time to revisit the construction of a supplementary drainage canal that would divert floodwaters from the White Oak Bayou downstream of its current confluence with the Buffalo Bayou, to reconnect with the bayou in the vicinity of the McKee Street Bridge.

A likely configuration may be an open-cut channel with vertical retaining walls. Staircases would provide access to the bayou and associated pedestrian improvements, similar to the Chicago River or Seine in Paris. Whatever the optimum configuration proves to be, the supplementary canal will be designed to stimulate appropriate, context-sensitive development within the north-sector warehouse district.

In order to improve water quality and reduce suspended sediment load and water volume during periods of flooding, a region wide watershed management program is recommended, where National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) storm water permitting program guidelines are strictly enforced. Micro-detention strategies, such as rooftop gardens, permeable paving systems, water gardens, vegetated swales, and underground storage systems are employed to retain water for a period of time, to prevent overloading existing storm water infrastructure.

By employing the services of local engineering firm and team subconsultant, Turner, Collie and Braden, Inc., the HCFCD has developed a hydraulic model, through which proposed recommendations can be modeled and tested. Preliminary results based on a combination of the previously described floodwater conveyance and diversion measures indicate that there may be a floodwater reduction of approximately two to four feet.

Implementation: Demonstration Project
To test the viability of plan recommendations, the Buffalo Bayou Partnership proposes launching a bottomland restoration demonstration project. Using established site selection criteria, a location within the Buffalo Bayou corridor will be selected and used to construct a terraced, lowland environment, where floodwater can be diverted, retained, and filtered through wetland processes.

It is clear that an aggregation of improvements will be required to reduce the threat of flooding within the Buffalo Bayou corridor. Flooding of metropolitan Houston and its immediate environs will never be eliminated altogether because Houston is located within a very active deltaic, coastal environment. In the final analysis, the regional community must adapt to periodic flooding. The consultant team believes that adopting sustainable development principles and adhering to policies that prevent development within flood prone areas, that encourage sensitive, low-impact construction and development practices, can minimize the potential for extensive flooding in the future.

For more information about proposed Plan improvements, refer to the Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s website at www.buffalobayou.org or call 713-752-0314.