‘The bayou's alive’: ignoring it could kill Houston

Buffalo bayou’s waters flow east for more than 50 miles from fast-vanishing western prairieland, through Houston’s centre and out to its heavily industrial ship channel.

Long before the city’s tangle of freeways were built, the bayou’s existence helped draw settlers in the 19th century. But after thousands of homes flooded this August as Hurricane Harvey ravaged the city, proximity to water is increasingly seen as a liability.

More than 400,000 homes sit in the watershed of the bayou, which has become a focus of angst regarding how and where to rebuild, and whether Houston’s economic model – which helped it to become the fourth largest US city – is sustainable in the climate-change era.

“I think Houston’s at a turning point in its history,” says Jim Blackburn, an environmental lawyer and co-director of the Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disaster Center at Rice University. “I think it could be on the forefront of thresilience movement of the 21st century and redefining how cities deal with these severe storm events, which are becoming much more commonplace.”

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