Storm Surge, Zoning Law, and Environmental Policy: Protecting New Orleans and Houston

Abstract

Coastal cities are under increasing risk from extreme weather events and flooding due to global warming and rising sea levels. Therefore, over the next century, cities will have to develop new ways to protect themselves from inundation induced damages. This thesis evaluates the use of zoning laws as a possible solution to protecting cities from damages during natural disasters. Using estimated sea storm surge model forecasts, induced by abnormal weather events, combined with LIDAR digital elevation models of New Orleans and Houston, we estimated inland flooding under current zoning guidelines within the two cities, and assigned a dollar damage value based on FEMA’s HAZUS damage estimation model. Next, the digital elevation models were altered to reflect more stringent flood prevention regulations and environmental policies within the two cities. This study shows that even under a half meter zoning elevation reform, these two cities could prevent nearly one billion dollars in property damage annually caused by flooding from projected future storm surge. Future studies should examine different land use regulations and greenspace renewals, and account for predicted sea-level rise and increased storm frequency from climate change for developing zoning reform.