PhD student Adam Griffith comments on urban growth and Houston’s flooding

CAGIS researcher and Ph.D. student Adam Griffith was recently tapped by the popular NPR newsprogram Marketplace to comment on the connection between urban development and the recent catastrophic flooding Houston associated with hurricane Harvey.

Listen to the article here.

In his blog, Griffith describes his methods for measuring increases in Houston’s impervious land covers between 2001 and 2011. Using freely available data and software, notably Google’s Earth Engine, he estimated that almost 44 square miles of greenfield covers were converted to impervious surfaces during the period. Of these, losses of critical infiltration covers, such as native prairies, were suggested as contributing to the historic flooding.

While Griffith admits the actual analyses were conducted quickly, his preparation learning to use the Earth Engine tool ultimately enabled him to conduct an exploratory, yet high-impact analyses thereby contributing to the active dialog around resilience in coastal land systems.

Griffith presents his work at the CAGIS Seminar Series on November 1st.