PSW 2479 The Ike Dike Project to Protect Texas Coasts | Merrell & Brody

Lecture Starts at 11:38
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The Ike Dike Project to Protect Texas Coasts: Responding to Rapid Climate and Land Use Change
William Merrell
Professor and George P. Mitchell Chair
Department of Marine and Coastal Environmental Science
Texas A&M University at Galveston
Sam Brody
Professor, Department of Marine and Coastal Environmental Science
Texas A&M University at Galveston
Despite efforts to mitigate the adverse impacts of flooding across the United States (U.S.), losses from both acute and chronic events continue to rise, particularly in low-lying coastal areas. Increasing climate change risk combined with rapid land use change and development in flood-prone areas has amplified the adverse economic and human impacts in recent years. Adapting to climate-induced and human development changes has become a paramount issue for coastal cities in the U.S. While these cities continue to incur billions of dollars in flood losses every year, the U.S. flood mitigation system remains rooted in a recovery-based approach, which accepts failure to prevent flood damages and focuses on policies that encourage rapid building and recovery in flood-prone areas.
After Hurricane Ike in 2008 caused catastrophic impacts to the Houston-Galveston region of the Upper Texas Coast, flood risk reduction proposals have shifted to a more protection-based approach focusing on mitigating flood risk before an event takes place or eliminating it altogether. Input from researchers and practitioners in the U.S. and the Netherlands coalesced into a multidisciplinary proposal to protect one of the country’s most critical economic centers from future storm surge impacts called a Coastal Spine (aka, the “Ike Dike”). This presentation will trace the intellectual roots, research findings, and policy process of the Texas Coastal Spine for flood risk reduction, which is now the largest approved U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project in history. We will discuss the implications of adopting this protection-based, multifunctional approach as a pathway for more effectively protecting coastal communities in the face of exponentially increasing flood risk.
William J. Merrell
William J. Merrell is Regents Professor, President Emeritus and the George P. Mitchell Chair of Marine Sciences at Texas A&M University at Galveston. Previously Bill was President of the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, and Vice Chancellor for Strategic Programs of The Texas A&M University System, Vice President for Research Policy of Texas A&M University. He also served as Chair of the Ocean Studies Board, on the Space Studies Board and on the Board on Sustainability of the National Research Council, and he has held Presidential Appointments with the National Science Foundation.
Bill’s scientific work has included studies of regional and large-scale ocean physics as well as coastal processes and hurricane impacts. Recently his interests have focused on coastal sustainability and disaster mitigation and recovery. Following the devastation of Hurricane Ike, he helped establish the Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas, and he began the Ike Dike project to provide hurricane surge protection for the Upper Texas Coast including all of Houston and Galveston.
Among Bill’s honors and awards, he is the recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Medal from the Geosciences and Earth Resources Council, and he is the only person to receive the Distinguished Service Award of the National Science Foundation twice.
Bill earned a BS in Physics and an MA in Mathematics at Sam Houston State University and a PhD in oceanography at Texas A&M University.
Samuel D. Brody
Samuel D. Brody is Regents Professor and George P. Mitchell ’40 Chair in Sustainable Coasts in the Department of Marine and Coastal Environmental Science at Texas A&M University, Galveston Campus. He is also the Director of the Institute for a Disaster Resilient Texas, an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rice University, and a Senior Fellow at the Water Institute of the Gulf. He was also the Lead Technical Expert for the Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas in response to Hurricane Harvey.
Sam’s research focuses on coastal environmental planning, spatial analysis, flood mitigation, climate change policy, and natural hazards mitigation. He has published numerous scientific articles on flood risk and mitigation, and recently released the book, Coastal Flood Risk Reduction: The Netherlands and the U.S. Upper Texas Coast, published by Elsevier Press.
Sam teaches graduate courses in environmental planning, flood mitigation, and coastal resiliency. He has also worked in both the public and private sectors to help local communities adopt flood mitigation plans.
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