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Organization
Office of the Texas State Climatologist
The Office of the Texas State Climatologist (OSC) is housed in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, College of Geosciences, Texas A&M University. The OSC serves as a clearinghouse for climate information for the state of Texas. The OSC issues regular climate updates and conducts research on climate monitoring and climate prediction in Texas and the southern U.S.
Organization
USGS Texas Water Science Center
The USGS Texas Water Science Center provides current real time data on streamflow, ground water, water quality, precipitation, and lakes and reservoirs from sites throughout Texas. The center has historical data on streamflow, ground water, water quality, and other water-related information. The center also has numerous publications, data sheets, projects, and scientific reports on a range of hydrological topics. The USGS operates the most extensive satellite network of stream-gaging stations in the State, many of which form the backbone of flood-warning systems.
Organization
Texas Sea Grant
The Texas Sea Grant College Program is dedicated to the understanding, wise use and stewardship of the state's coastal and marine resources. The Texas program is housed at Texas A&M University, and works with academic institutions, agencies and industries throughout the state and also supports regional activities, including research, in collaboration with the other Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant Programs. The program involves coastal and marine-related research, marine advisory services and communications.
Resource
Austin, Texas Climate Resilience Action Plan for City Assets and Operations
April 2018
The Climate Resilience Action Plan for Austin, Texas provides an assessment of extreme weather impacts to City-owned assets and operations, and outlines strategies for the City of Austin’s long-range planning in response to current and projected climate change. The plan describes climate adaptation strategies for the City’s Utility Infrastructure (electric, water, wastewater and telecommunications), Transportation Infrastructure, and Community Facilities.
Author or Affiliated User: Marc Coudert
Resource Category: Planning
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Greauxing Resilience at Home — City of Houston, Texas: Resilient Houston and Affordable Housing and Nature-Based Efforts
June 16, 2022
Houston has been battered by six federally declared flooding disasters in five years, including the record-setting Hurricane Harvey in 2017. A significant amount of Houston’s existing development is located in vulnerable floodplains. These land use patterns, combined with recurrent disasters, have served as the impetus for Houston to undertake several related efforts to increase local resilience. The city has thus begun to plan to increase its resilience against future storms. In 2018, the city responded by adding structural elevation requirements in the 500-year floodplain and increasing them for the 100-year floodplain. In addition, the city developed the Resilient Houston plan. If implemented, the proposed recommendations in Resilient Houston will promote affordable housing with access to job centers, improve community resilience through green space preservation, and enhance stormwater management through the promotion of green stormwater infrastructure. Other local governments facing similar threats from disaster events and pressures to develop in floodplains could evaluate and consider adopting some of Houston’s planning and land-use actions. This case study is one of 24 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond.
Resource Category: Solutions
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Greauxing Resilience at Home — City of Austin, Texas: Affordable Housing and Green Infrastructure Efforts
June 16, 2022
Austin’s housing plan and comprehensive plan set forth a vision of the city embodied by sustainability, social equity, and economic opportunity as it prepares for continued growth. To advance these values, Austin is taking an intentional approach to create “complete communities” — compact and connected neighborhoods where daily needs can be met close to where residents live and work. In the realm of affordable housing, this means increasing housing development across the city to maximize access to transit and amenities, rather than keeping affordable housing concentrated in certain areas or isolated on the city’s outskirts. The city’s housing planning is also informed by an environmental element: building affordable housing in compact and connected communities can also reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions associated with traffic congestion and car dependency. On the environmental side, Austin’s various environmental management departments have renewed efforts to collaborate to increase the city’s green infrastructure and update its watershed management plan. These initiatives recognize the need to integrate various programs and agencies in order to establish a more consolidated approach to achieving the city’s environmental goals. This case study is one of 24 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Greauxing Resilience at Home: A Collection of Lessons and Case Studies from Louisiana and Beyond.
Resource Category: Solutions
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State of Iowa and State of Texas: Regional Water Planning
May 18, 2022
This entry summarizes some approaches to regional watershed management and flood mitigation in Texas and Iowa. This research was conducted to inform Georgetown Climate Center's work in Louisiana's Region Seven Watershed.
Resource Category: Organizations
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Delivering Urban Resilience: Costs and benefits of city-wide adoption of smart surfaces
2018
This report quantifies the benefits and costs of smart surface technologies and finds that the risks from extreme heat and weather can be offset by these technologies. It draws on Washington D. C. , Philadelphia, and El Paso as case studies and considers five smart surface technologies: cool roofs, green roofs, solar PV, reflective pavements, and urban trees. The authors find that adopting these technologies can generate millions (or even billions) of dollars in net financial benefits at the city level and can generate half a trillion dollars in net financial benefits nationwide.
Authors or Affiliated Users: Greg Kats, Keith Glassbrook
Resource Category: Solutions
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Organization
South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center
The South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center is one of eight regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs) under the Department of the Interior (DOI) managed by the U. S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Climate Adaptation Science Center. The mission of the Centers and National CASC is to "deliver science to help fish, wildlife, water, land, and people adapt to a changing climate. " CASCs provide the tools that managers need to develop and implement strategies that address the impacts of climate change on natural and cultural resources.
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Equitable Recovery, Equitable Resilience
August 2020
This white paper from Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) describes the roles that community organizations play in responding to natural disasters, as well as the accomplishments and challenges relating to this work. With natural disasters related to climate change occuring at increasingly frequent rates, community organizations provide critical emergency aid and recovery services. Furthermore, these services can help reduce the recovery gap within communities, as underlying economic, social, and housing factors and public policy decisions create disparities which are exacerbated through natural disasters. Drawing on interviews with various organizations in California, Florida, Puerto Rico, and Texas, this paper reviews the different strategies that these groups use and puts forth some recommendations for policy changes that may be necessary to advance equity in recovery and resilience.
Resource Category: Solutions
