City of Houston (funded by NFWF Coastal Resilience Grant)
Pocket Prairies Implementation Framework
The Approach
Between 2023 and 2024, the Water Institute led an effort to develop a Pocket Prairies Implementation Framework document in partnership with SCAPE Landscape Architecture and the City of Houston. The document, which includes best practices from several Houston-based prairie experts and the best available research, provides:
- An introduction to coastal prairies and Houston’s urban habitat types, their importance to Houston, and their multiple resilience benefits;
- Stepwise guidance through the entire lifecycle of implementing small-scale “pocket prairies” and other nature-based solutions— from site analysis and prioritization all the way through to maintenance, monitoring, and creating visibility; and
- Conceptual pocket prairie designs for five pilot sites that can be replicable and scalable across similar sites citywide.
Spatial Analysis Methods for Site Prioritization
In addition to the Implementation Framework document, the effort included early spatial analysis—both clustering analysis and scoring analysis—to support site prioritization for the conceptual designs. The project team employed citywide datasets and applied a replicable analysis framework that examines the specific site candidates across multiple functions such as biodiversity, flood mitigation, and public/social health.
KEY TEAM MEMBERS
