Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways for flood risk management in Galveston Bay: Making informed flood defence decisions for an uncertain future

Making decisions when future conditions are uncertain is a challenging endeavor. This thesis develops a framework to analyse flood risk and create Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways, which can provide insights in the behaviour of flood risk protection measures in many future scenarios. The pathways are used to identify robust measures, dead ends...

Investigating the Risk of Galveston's Proposed Floating Sector Gates Failing Under Reverse Loading Conditions

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Disaster resilient Galveston: A multidisciplinary project on the design of sustainable measures to counteract coastal and pluvial flooding issues in Galveston

The report tackles Galveston's flooding challenges, which are currently in development with the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) ring barrier. However, the current design, predominantly addressing coastal flooding, falls short in dealing with pluvial flooding, relying heavily on pumps. This top-down approach neglects environmental and...

Multidisciplinary assessment of engineered dunes for West End, Galveston Island, Texas

The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is scheduled to present their solution for a storm surge barrier on Galveston Island in 2021 to congress for approval. A solution for an engineered dune system on the Galveston Island West End has been proposed, but storm surge models have shown that protection from this engineered dune only goes...

Dune Based Alternative to Coastal Spine Land Barrier in Galveston Bay: Conceptual Design

Galveston Bay is an area in the Upper Texas Coast (USA) historically suffering from the impact of several large magnitude hurricanes. In 2008 hurricane Ike, one of the most devastating natural disasters in Unites States recent past, raised awareness of the flood vulnerability problem of the area and triggered the beginning of different proposals...

Quantifying Wave Attenuation by Nature-based Solutions in the Galveston Bay

The main objective of this thesis is to assess the effectiveness of Nature-based Solutions in reducing flood risk in the Galveston Bay by means of wave attenuation. The methodology to answer these questions consists of both literature review and numerical modelling. The wave height reducing capabilities of marsh vegetation, seagrass meadows and...

A hybrid solution for the Galveston Seawall: A study on the reduction of the hydraulic loads by a sand cover at the Galveston Seawall with the use of XBeach

The City of Galveston is protected from extreme storm impact by a 17-km concrete seawall facing the Gulf of Mexico. Recent investigations have shown that the seawall may not be sufficient any more to protect against a 1 in 100 year design storm. Since raising the seawall disconnects the city from the beach and may be very costly, a hybrid...

Building-with-Nature Solutions for Hurricane Flood Risk Reduction in Galveston Bay, Texas: Conceptual Design Study

The enormous damage caused by hurricane Ike in the year 2008 has been the main incentive for several structural flood risk reduction plans in the Houston-Galveston Bay area. One of them is the ’Ike Dike’, a large-scale coastal barrier which closes Galveston Bay to prevent penetration of hurricane surges. A momentum gain for flood risk reduction...

Framing flood risks: Using images to communicate flood risks to the public

A conceptual design of the Houston Ship Channel Barrier

The frequency of hurricanes along any 80 km segment of the Coast of Texas is about 1 in 6 years (Roth,2009). On average, 4 major hurricanes (category 3 or higher) occur every century in the Houston-Galveston Region (Needham and Keim, 2011). In addition, the region is very vulnerable: Houston is the fourth biggest city in the US, over 6 million...

The Bolivar Roads Surge Barrier: A conceptual design for the environmental section

In response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Ike to the Galveston Bay Area, Texas, United States in September 2008, several proposals emerged to protect the region against future storm surges. One of them is a coastal spine called the ’Ike Dike’. A challenge for this 160 km [100 mi] long flood protection is to cross Bolivar Roads, a 2.8 km...

Hurricane Surge Risk Reduction For Galveston Bay

More than five years after Hurricane Ike devastated the Galveston Bay Area, the most critical challenge remains; reducing flood vulnerability. In response to Hurricane Ike’s disastrous impact, several structural flood risk reduction strategies have been proposed. Some advocating local solutions, others advocating system-wide coastal barriers....

The Effects of the "Ike Dike" barriers on Galveston Bay

In 2008 Hurricane Ike flooded large parts of the barrier islands in front of the Galveston Bay near Houston, Texas. The storm surge also entered the bay through the inlets causing great damage along the bay and the port of Houston. Because of the high probability that a hurricane would strike again the “Ike Dike” was developed. The concept...