Entries by admin
Attention Homes Still Under Repair: Freeze Watch Tuesday Night into Wednesday
Harris County has issued a freeze watch. Temperatures for Tuesday night into Wednesday should dip into the high twenties or low thirties. That normally wouldn’t be a problem for most well-insulated homes. But some are still under repair and may be missing attic or wall insulation. And some folks still living out of campers in […]
How fast are we replacing forests and wetlands with concrete?
We all know that concrete is impervious and that it increases both the amount and speed of runoff, which contributes to flooding. But how fast are we losing wetlands, forest and prairie to development? Does anyone really know? The folks at the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) in The Woodlands have attempted to quantify the […]
Houston Advanced Research Center Pre-/Post Harvey Mapping Tool
A novel GIS mapping tool developed by the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) now makes it easy to see how Hurricane Harvey changed the San Jacinto River. This novel, 4-pane mapping tool allows users to view pre- and post- Hurricane Harvey images in natural and infrared colors. The four panels make it very helpful when looking […]
Why We Need Full-Cost Accounting for Aggregate Mining
Last night, I read a strangely moving 125-page white paper titled Freshwater Gravel Mining and Dredging Issues. It was authored by G. Mathias Kondolf, Matt Smeltzer and Lisa Kimball of UC Berkeley for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington Department of Ecology, and Washington Department of Transportation in 2001. Despite “Gravel” in the name, the paper is an encyclopedic […]