Hurricane Harvey Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Urban development=== Houston has seen rapid urban development ([[urban sprawl]]), with absorbent prairie and wetlands replaced by hard surfaces which rapidly shed storm water, overwhelming the drainage capacity of the rivers and channels.<ref name="Fernandez Fausset 2017">{{cite news | author1=Manny Fernandez | author2=Richard Fausset | title=A Storm Forces Houston, the Limitless City, to Consider Its Limits | work=The New York Times | date=August 27, 2017 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/us/houston-flooding-growth-regulation.html | access-date=August 31, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831025002/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/us/houston-flooding-growth-regulation.html | archive-date=August 31, 2017 | url-status=live }}</ref> Between 1992 and 2010, almost 25,000 acres of wetlands were lost, decreasing the detention capacity of the region by four billion gallons.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://qz.com/1064364/hurricane-harvey-houstons-flooding-made-worse-by-unchecked-urban-development-and-wetland-destruction/ | first1=Ana | last1=Campoy | first2=David | last2=Yanofsky | title=Houston's flooding shows what happens when you ignore science and let developers run rampant | date=August 29, 2017 | access-date=September 12, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912080708/https://qz.com/1064364/hurricane-harvey-houstons-flooding-made-worse-by-unchecked-urban-development-and-wetland-destruction/ | archive-date=September 12, 2017 | url-status=live }}</ref> However, Harvey was estimated to have dropped more than fifteen trillion gallons of water in the area.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/8/30/houston-hurricane-harvey-land-use | first1=Daniel | last1=Herriges | title=Houston isn't flooded because of its land use planning | date=August 30, 2017 | access-date=September 12, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912234548/https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/8/30/houston-hurricane-harvey-land-use | archive-date=September 12, 2017 | url-status=live }}</ref> The Katy Prairie in western Harris County, which once helped to absorb floodwaters in the region, has been reduced to one quarter of its previous size in the last several decades due to [[Urban sprawl|suburban development]], and one analysis discovered that more than 7,000 housing units have been built within the 100-year floodplain in Harris County since 2010.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/business/metropolis/2017/08/houston_wasn_t_built_to_withstand_a_storm_like_harvey.html |title=Houston Wasn't Built for a Storm Like This |author=Henry Grabar |work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |date=August 27, 2017 |access-date=August 29, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170829025120/http://www.slate.com/articles/business/metropolis/2017/08/houston_wasn_t_built_to_withstand_a_storm_like_harvey.html |archive-date=August 29, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page