When they were built, everything upstream was prairie. Rain falling on that area would mostly be absorbed or cause localized ponding. The rest would enter the river in question, Buffalo Bayou, I believe.
(Wikipedia has a dandy map of the Buffalo Bayou watershed: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bayou). It's interesting to note that it's almost entirely contained between the 99 "Grand parkway"(?) and Houston---I'm old, I remember when there was farmland between Katy and Houston.)
Now, much of the area upstream has been converted to less permeable urban use, with the result that more water becomes run-off and ends up in the bayou. None of that construction is in any particular danger of flooding, itself. The article describes some of the legal and political fights that were involved in trying to say, "no, you cannot build any more net-impermeable in the Bayou watershed."
With an integrated flood prevention policy, such as is supposed to exist in the UK and is claimed in Ontario, the people developing upstream would have to show that they've considered the effect on downstream, and mitigate any impact.
Like the GP, I only really know about this because a family member does modelling in that area.
Actually, it isn't. Take a look at a map of the area around the reservoirs in question:
https://encrypted.google.com/maps/place/Barker+Reservoir/@29...
They are both completely surrounded by Houston.
When they were built, everything upstream was prairie. Rain falling on that area would mostly be absorbed or cause localized ponding. The rest would enter the river in question, Buffalo Bayou, I believe.
(Wikipedia has a dandy map of the Buffalo Bayou watershed: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bayou). It's interesting to note that it's almost entirely contained between the 99 "Grand parkway"(?) and Houston---I'm old, I remember when there was farmland between Katy and Houston.)
Now, much of the area upstream has been converted to less permeable urban use, with the result that more water becomes run-off and ends up in the bayou. None of that construction is in any particular danger of flooding, itself. The article describes some of the legal and political fights that were involved in trying to say, "no, you cannot build any more net-impermeable in the Bayou watershed."