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...

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...

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...

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....