Federally identified ‘disaster resilience zones’ could receive more funding and resources to urgently address climate resilience and prepare their neighborhoods for future extreme weather.
A federal measure of flood risk places more ‘disaster resilience zones’ in the Greater Houston area than any other county in the United States, writes Muizz Akhtar in Urban Edge. Census tracts are designated as disaster resilience zones for at least five years if identified as disadvantaged using the federal Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool and if they rank in the top 50 nationally or top 1 percent of vulnerable communities in their state.
According to a FEMA press release, “these designations will help ensure that the most at-risk communities are able to build resilience against natural hazards and extreme weather events, which are becoming increasingly intense and frequent due to climate change.”
In Houston, “The 14 tracts are home to slightly less than 60,000 people, or just over 1% of the county's population, but they are also home to people who tend to have less resources to help them deal with extreme weather:” the population is overwhelmingly poorer than the rest of the county, while the housing stock is significantly older.
“According to a recent survey by the Kinder Institute, significant shares of Houstonians do not feel ready for the next disaster, with 44% saying not enough has been done to prepare (in terms of mitigation and resilience projects), 40% saying their community is not ready to recover from extreme weather and 42% saying their home is not safe from it.”
Criticism for Army Corps' Houston Flood Protection Plans
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has revised a plan to protect the Houston region from flooding by tossing out a proposed tunnel and opting instead to dig Buffalo Bayou wider and deeper.
Houston Flooding: Climate Change or Development Patterns to Blame?
The Guardian's former environmental editor asks if urban sprawl is as much to blame as climate change for the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in Houston.
Planning Year in Review 2024: An Ongoing Housing Crisis, the Fight for Climate Resilience, and a Mixed Bag for Transportation
A pedestrian safety crisis, rising housing instability, and destructive extreme weather events set the stage for an eventful year.
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association