Project: Citywide Flood Prevention & Drainage Studies

In 2007, the City of Sugar Land adopted its first Master Drainage Plan (MDP) as a tool to guide and implement continuous drainage planning. In 2009 the City embarked down the path of developing the Integrated Storm Water Management Model. This is essentially an interactive ponding map that utilizes 2 dimensional modeling to identify hot spots across the City. This effort lead the City’s early efforts on capital projects addressing impacted areas from the results of the modeling efforts.  An update to the MDP in 2014 provided a basis for formulating and prioritizing the City’s drainage capital improvement projects, and identified future activities to assist in drainage planning and flood control. Structural flooding was identified as the top priority with major roadway flooding/ponding being next in line to address. Through these efforts, policies have been developed which guide the City in planning and programming capital expenditures.

The Gulf Coast Region has experienced several major storm events over the past several years and it is projected the region will continue to see storms of historic levels. To prevent flooding, routine maintenance and targeted drainage projects remain a priority for the City. 

Completed projects in Covington Woods, other areas north of U.S. Highway 90A, the Sugar Creek Subdivision and parts of the Highlands subdivision prevented homes and businesses from flooding during Hurricane Harvey, the most extreme rain event in U.S. history.

City engineers continue to evaluate and identify drainage improvement needs through studies and hydraulic modeling to ensure the City is prepared for extreme rain storms. With the recent adoption of the Atlas 14 rainfall criteria the impacts to the City’s storm sewer system will continuously be monitored and modeled as major rainfall events occur.