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96-468: As a result of its central route through Harris County, the Brays Bayou watershed is heavily urbanized . Over 700,000 people reside within its 129-square-mile (330 km) drainage area, which contains 124 miles (200 km) of open-channel waterway, mostly from artificial drainage channels. This high level of development, combined with a relative lack of flood control infrastructure, means Brays Bayou

192-459: A cash crop in Alief through the early 20th century. As a result of its familiarity with flooding, Alief was home to the region's first flood control district, which was created in 1909. By the first half of the 20th century, suburbs of Houston had reached the banks of Brays Bayou. Rice University was established on a large plot of land adjacent to Harris Gully, a tributary of the bayou, in 1912, and

288-427: A hierarchical pattern . Other terms for a drainage basin are catchment area , catchment basin , drainage area , river basin , water basin , and impluvium . In North America, they are commonly called a watershed , though in other English-speaking places, "watershed" is used only in its original sense, that of the drainage divide line. A drainage basin's boundaries are determined by watershed delineation ,

384-685: A 2009 study by researcher Walton found that residential segregation paired with poverty led to lower birth weights in Black communities. A food desert is an area that has a lack of access to grocery stores and fresh, unprocessed foods. Food deserts tend to be neighborhoods with predominantly minority residents. Studies have shown that predominantly White areas and racially mixed areas have much more consistent access to supermarkets and fresh fruits and vegetables, while many predominantly Black neighborhoods have no grocery stores and limited access to fresh foods. Residents in more segregated areas have less variation in

480-437: A common task in environmental engineering and science. In a closed drainage basin, or endorheic basin , rather than flowing to the ocean, water converges toward the interior of the basin, known as a sink , which may be a permanent lake, a dry lake , or a point where surface water is lost underground . Drainage basins are similar but not identical to hydrologic units , which are drainage areas delineated so as to nest into

576-449: A drainage basin, and there are different ways to interpret that data. In the unlikely event that the gauges are many and evenly distributed over an area of uniform precipitation, using the arithmetic mean method will give good results. In the Thiessen polygon method, the drainage basin is divided into polygons with the rain gauge in the middle of each polygon assumed to be representative for

672-540: A drainage boundary is referred to as watershed delineation . Finding the area and extent of a drainage basin is an important step in many areas of science and engineering. Most of the water that discharges from the basin outlet originated as precipitation falling on the basin. A portion of the water that enters the groundwater system beneath the drainage basin may flow towards the outlet of another drainage basin because groundwater flow directions do not always match those of their overlying drainage network. Measurement of

768-508: A flood damage reduction project in the Brays watershed. The Harris County Flood Control District took over planning and implementation of the project in 1998, and construction began in 2001. The project, which has a tentative completion date of 2021, has been continuously delayed by gaps in federal funding, though the urgency of the 2015 and 2016 floods has hastened efforts to complete it. Once completed, Project Brays will remove 15,000 structures from

864-507: A greater portion of their income on housing. Individuals living in poverty represent a very small portion of homeowners. Census information on renters shows significant disparity between the races for renters. Of all renters, about 71% are white, 21% are black, 18% are Hispanic and 7% are Asian. Renters are generally less affluent than homeowners. From 1991 to 2005, the percentage of low-income renters increased significantly. Current trends in racial and income based residential segregation in

960-485: A high amount of concrete and a lack of trees and green spaces. In a 2013 study of the relationship between urban heat islands and residentially segregated neighborhoods, Jesdale et al. found that Black communities were 52% more likely than White communities to live in areas with high heat risk. Additionally, urban heat islands closely align with redlined neighborhoods and can reach temperatures up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than white neighborhoods. Extreme heat events are

1056-488: A housing shortage due to the Great Depression, FDR started public housing projects for working-class families, all of which were segregated, and most of which were limited to White people. World War II brought an influx of workers to cities looking for jobs, increasing the number of public housing projects. White projects tended to be built in already residential neighborhoods, while Black projects tended to be built on

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1152-524: A link between school spending and student outcomes, further exacerbating racial inequality. Access to healthcare varies across neighborhoods. A 2012 study looked at the access to primary care physicians; researchers Gaskin et al. found that zip codes with majority Black residents were much more likely to have a shortage of primary care physicians than neighborhoods with any other racial demographic makeup. Additionally, residentially segregated minority groups suffer disparate health consequences . For example,

1248-529: A minority of low-income families genuinely have less money due to segregationist zoning regulations and other racially discriminatory arrangements, minorities are prohibited from the more significant parts of specific areas within cities in the south. Many of these deeds and covenants remain active, and continue to influence settlement patterns. Local jurisdictions that adopt land-use zoning regulations such as large-lot zoning, minimum house size requirements, and bans on secondary units make housing more expensive. As

1344-581: A multi-level hierarchical drainage system . Hydrologic units are defined to allow multiple inlets, outlets, or sinks. In a strict sense, all drainage basins are hydrologic units but not all hydrologic units are drainage basins. About 48.71% of the world's land drains to the Atlantic Ocean . In North America , surface water drains to the Atlantic via the Saint Lawrence River and Great Lakes basins,

1440-720: A result, this excludes lower income racial and ethnic minorities from certain neighborhoods. The location of public housing developments influences both racial and income segregation patterns. Racial segregation in public housing programs occurs when high concentrations of a certain minority group occupy one specific public housing development. Income segregation occurs when high concentrations of public housing are located in one specific income area. Federal and local policies have historically racially segregated public housing. Local jurisdictions determined whether to incorporate public housing into their locality and most had control over where low income housing sites were built. In many areas,

1536-496: A sense of racial pride, or a desire to avoid living near another group because of fear of racial hostility. Other theories suggest demographic and socioeconomic factors such as age, gender and social class background influence residential choice. Empirical evidence to explain these assumptions is generally limited. One empirical study completed in 2002 analyzed survey data from a random sample of blacks from Atlanta, Boston, Detroit and Los Angeles. The results of this study found that

1632-465: Is also criticism of the methods used to determine discrimination and it is not clear if paired testing accurately reflects the conditions in which people are actually searching for housing. Real estate appraisal is the subjective valuation of real estate properties based on factors like market value. Studies have found that appraisers tend to value properties owned by minorities lower than properties owned by white people, known as an appraisal gap. This

1728-418: Is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth , or flows into another body of water , such as a lake or ocean . A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, the drainage divide , made up of a succession of elevated features, such as ridges and hills . A basin may consist of smaller basins that merge at river confluences , forming

1824-821: Is due to appraiser's biased perceptions of neighborhoods based on the racial demographics. Lower property appraisals consequently lead to higher rates of mortgage application rejections and keep property values in minority neighborhoods and of minority families in primarily white neighborhoods down. Neighborhood disinvestment occurs when a city systematically limits funding for public resources in typically urban neighborhoods, which tend to fall along racial/ethnic lines. This limits public goods available to these communities, such as funding for public education, and leads to continued undervaluation of property values. Re-investment in disinvested neighborhoods, rather than leading to improved property values and living conditions for minority residents, can lead to gentrification, as covered in

1920-499: Is extremely prone to flash flooding events. The origin of the name Brays Bayou is unclear, and the alternate spellings Braes and Bray's have been used throughout its history, most prominently in Braeswood Place , a neighborhood which straddles the bayou southwest of Rice University, and Braeswood Boulevard, which runs along the river between Interstate 610 and Texas State Highway 288 . Braeswood may have originated from

2016-477: Is increased racial and income inequality , which in turn reinforces segregation. A 2015 Measure of America report on disconnected youth found that black youth in highly segregated metro areas are more likely to be disconnected from work and school. In 2014, the Child Opportunity Index measures very high to very low opportunity comparing race and ethnicity in the 100 largest US metropolitan areas in

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2112-488: Is racially motivated, rather than motivated by alternate socioeconomic concerns. Studies have shown that white flight is most prominent in middle-class, suburban neighborhoods. Residential preferences of blacks are categorized by social-psychological and socioeconomic demographic characteristics. The theory behind social psychological residential preference is that segregation is a result of blacks choosing to live around other blacks because of cultural similarities, maintaining

2208-480: Is referred to as " watershed management ". In Brazil , the National Policy of Water Resources, regulated by Act n° 9.433 of 1997, establishes the drainage basin as the territorial division of Brazilian water management. When a river basin crosses at least one political border, either a border within a nation or an international boundary, it is identified as a transboundary river . Management of such basins becomes

2304-600: Is the Dead Sea . Drainage basins have been historically important for determining territorial boundaries, particularly in regions where trade by water has been important. For example, the English crown gave the Hudson's Bay Company a monopoly on the fur trade in the entire Hudson Bay basin, an area called Rupert's Land . Bioregional political organization today includes agreements of states (e.g., international treaties and, within

2400-682: The African Great Lakes , the interiors of Australia and the Arabian Peninsula , and parts in Mexico and the Andes . Some of these, such as the Great Basin, are not single drainage basins but collections of separate, adjacent closed basins. In endorheic bodies of water where evaporation is the primary means of water loss, the water is typically more saline than the oceans. An extreme example of this

2496-584: The Eastern Seaboard of the United States, the Canadian Maritimes , and most of Newfoundland and Labrador . Nearly all of South America east of the Andes also drains to the Atlantic, as does most of Western and Central Europe and the greatest portion of western Sub-Saharan Africa , as well as Western Sahara and part of Morocco . The two major mediterranean seas of the world also flow to

2592-719: The Federal Housing Administration's early redlining policies, set the tone for segregation in housing that has sustained consequences for present-day residential patterns. Trends in residential segregation are attributed to discriminatory policies and practices, such as exclusionary zoning, location of public housing, redlining, disinvestment , and gentrification, as well as personal attitudes and preferences. Residential segregation produces negative socioeconomic outcomes for minority groups, influencing disparities in educational opportunity, access to health care and food, and employment. Public policies for housing reform, like

2688-627: The Housing Choice Voucher program, attempt to promote integration and mitigate these negative effects, but with mixed results. In the early 1900s, U.S. cities were largely integrated, with working-class, typically immigrant, White families often living in the same neighborhoods as working-class Black families. However, the early 1930s marked the beginning of discriminatory housing policies . In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted New Deal reforms that involved segregating some of these integrated working-class neighborhoods. To combat

2784-591: The MD Anderson Cancer Center . Meyerland , located immediately west of the southwest corner of Interstate 610 , was opened in 1955 as one of Houston's first master-planned communities . Brays Bayou continues to serve as a greenway connecting these affluent neighborhoods and districts. Like many other Houston bayous, Brays Bayou was channelized by the United States Army Corps of Engineers between 1955 and 1960 after severe flooding earlier in

2880-718: The Mississippi (3.22 million km ), and the Río de la Plata (3.17 million km ). The three rivers that drain the most water, from most to least, are the Amazon, Ganges , and Congo rivers. Endorheic basin are inland basins that do not drain to an ocean. Endorheic basins cover around 18% of the Earth's land. Some endorheic basins drain to an Endorheic lake or Inland sea . Many of these lakes are ephemeral or vary dramatically in size depending on climate and inflow. If water evaporates or infiltrates into

2976-781: The Nile River ), Southern , Central, and Eastern Europe , Turkey , and the coastal areas of Israel , Lebanon , and Syria . The Arctic Ocean drains most of Western Canada and Northern Canada east of the Continental Divide , northern Alaska and parts of North Dakota , South Dakota , Minnesota , and Montana in the United States, the north shore of the Scandinavian peninsula in Europe, central and northern Russia, and parts of Kazakhstan and Mongolia in Asia , which totals to about 17% of

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3072-574: The Third Ward , and exits into the East End after passing under Interstate 45 . Significantly wider at this point, Brays Bayou then empties into Buffalo Bayou at the Houston Ship Channel and historic townsite of Harrisburg. The confluence of Brays and Buffalo bayous was the original focal point for Anglo-American settlement in the region with the founding of Harrisburg in 1825. In 1836, Houston

3168-461: The University of Houston was established just north of the bayou in the Third Ward in 1927. Harrisburg was annexed by the city in 1926. During the 1930s, Riverside Terrace , south of the Third Ward , became home to the large forested estates of Houston's wealthy Jewish community, which had been segregated out of River Oaks . The Texas Medical Center began in the 1940s with the construction of

3264-655: The Westpark Tollway , into Alief . After briefly entering Westchase , the Brays turns southward, bisects the International District , and straddles the western edge of Sharpstown . After passing under Interstate 69 , the bayou flows east-northeast through Meyerland , underneath the Interstate 610 loop, and past the Texas Medical Center and Hermann Park . The bayou passes under State Highway 288 , enters

3360-527: The groundwater . A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. Residential segregation in the United States Residential segregation is the physical separation of two or more groups into different neighborhoods —a form of segregation that "sorts population groups into various neighborhood contexts and shapes

3456-494: The 100-year (0.1%) floodplain . The Brays Bayou Greenway serves as an important linear park through a broad region of Houston, providing 30 miles (48 km) of grade-separated hike-and-bike trails. Under the City of Houston's Bayou Greenways 2020 project, Brays Bayou has been the focus of a number of projects to fill gaps in the trail network, add new park space, and provide increased connectivity to adjacent neighborhoods and across

3552-422: The 1980s, with a 2010 rate of 66.9%. As of 2010 , 71% of Whites were homeowners. The rates for Black, Hispanic, and all other racial groups remain consistently and significantly below the national average, with homeownership rates in 2010 of 45%, 48%, and 57%, respectively. Looking at all homeowners in 2007, about 87% are White. Low-income individuals are less likely to be homeowners than other income groups and pay

3648-758: The Andes. The Indian Ocean 's drainage basin also comprises about 13% of Earth's land. It drains the eastern coast of Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf , the Indian subcontinent , Burma, and most parts of Australia . The five largest river basins (by area), from largest to smallest, are those of the Amazon (7 million km ), the Congo (4 million km ), the Nile (3.4 million km ),

3744-701: The Atlantic. The Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico basin includes most of the U.S. interior between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains , a small part of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan , eastern Central America , the islands of the Caribbean and the Gulf, and a small part of northern South America. The Mediterranean Sea basin, with the Black Sea , includes much of North Africa , east-central Africa (through

3840-726: The Fair Housing Act and housing discrimination could help reduce segregation. The class action lawsuit Hills v. Dorothy Gautreaux alleged that the development of Chicago Housing Authority's (CHA) public housing units in areas of high concentration of poor minorities violated federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) policies and the Fair Housing Act. The 1976 court decision resulted in HUD and CHA agreeing to mediate segregation imposed on Chicago public housing residents by providing Section 8 voucher assistance to more than 7,000 black families. The Section 8 assistance provided blacks

3936-449: The Index of Dissimilarity over the decades. The indices from 1980, 1990 and 2000 are 40.5, 41.2 and 41.1, respectively. Segregation for Native Americans and Alaska Natives has also been consistently the lowest of all groups and has seen a decline over the decades. The indices from 1980, 1990 and 2000 are 37.3, 36.8 and 33.3, respectively. Analysis of patterns for income segregation come from

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4032-659: The National Survey of America's Families, the Census and Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. Both the index of dissimilarity and the neighborhood sorting indices show that income segregation grew between 1970 and 1990. In this period, the Index of Dissimilarity between the affluent and the poor increased from .29 to .43. Poor families are becoming more isolated. Whereas in 1970 only 14 percent of poor families lived in predominantly poor areas, this number increased to 28 percent in 1990 and continues to rise. Most low-income people live in

4128-709: The Scottish word brae , for hill or slope. An early settler along Brays Bayou, Henry MacGregor (the namesake of MacGregor Drive in the Third Ward ), may have coined the name. The name Brays has been used to describe the river since the arrival of the Old Three Hundred at Stephen F. Austin 's colony in the 1820s. In 1822, a man named Bray settled along the bayou, possibly providing its name. Brays Bayou has its source at an artificial stormwater detention basin south of Barker Reservoir in extreme western Harris County. It flows eastward, north of Mission Bend and parallel to

4224-1131: The Supreme Court outlawed the enforcement of racial covenants with Shelley v. Kraemer , and two decades later the Fair Housing Act of 1968 incorporated legislation that prohibited discrimination in private and publicly assisted housing. The 1975 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act limited mortgage lenders' ability to provide discretion in issuing loans and requiring that lenders provide full disclosure of where and to whom they were providing housing loans, in addition to requiring that they provide loans for all areas where they do business. The passage of fair housing laws provided an opportunity for legal recourse against local and federal agencies that segregated residents and prohibited integrated communities. Despite these laws, residential segregation still persists. More strict enforcement of these laws could prevent discriminatory lending practices and racial steering. Moreover, educating property owners, real estate agents, and minorities about

4320-456: The Supreme Court passage of Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) established "separate but equal" zoning ordinances that specified exclusively black, white and mixed districts and legally established segregation in housing opportunities. Many large and mid-sized cities in the South and mid-South adopted racial zonings between 1910 and 1915. In Buchanan v. Warley (1917) the Supreme Court ruled that racial zoning

4416-486: The U.S. Housing Authority were segregated by race. Anti-discrimination laws passed after World War II led to a reduction in racial segregation for a short period of time, but as income-ineligible tenants were removed from public housing, the proportion of black residents increased. The remaining low-income white tenants were often elderly and moved to projects reserved specifically for seniors. Family public housing units then became dominated by racial minorities. Three of

4512-783: The US to compare inequalities and residential segregation. Residentially segregated neighborhoods, in combination with school zone gerrymandering, leads to racial/ethnic segregation in schools . Studies have found that schools tend to be equally or more segregated than their surrounding neighborhoods, further exacerbating patterns of residential segregation and racial inequality. Schools with majority-minority populations are consistently underfunded; school districts with high populations of Hispanic and Black students receive on average $ 5000 less per student than school districts with majority White students. Limited funding results in limited resources and academic opportunities for students. Studies have demonstrated

4608-553: The US, interstate compacts ) or other political entities in a particular drainage basin to manage the body or bodies of water into which it drains. Examples of such interstate compacts are the Great Lakes Commission and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency . In hydrology , the drainage basin is a logical unit of focus for studying the movement of water within the hydrological cycle . The process of finding

4704-497: The United States are attributed to several factors, including: These factors impact both racial and class-based segregation differently. Exclusionary zoning influences both racial and income-based segregation. Incidents of exclusionary zoning separating households by race appeared as early as the 1870s and 1880s, when municipalities in California adopted anti-Chinese policies. For example, an 1884 San Francisco ordinance regulated

4800-437: The amenities that are available to suburban residents. Thirty-nine percent of blacks live in the suburbs, compared to 58 percent of Asians, 49 percent of Hispanics and 71 percent of non-Hispanic whites. Further, post-World War II homebuilding in the suburbs benefitted whites, as housing prices tripled in the 1970s, enabling white homeowners to increase the equity of their homes. Because of this, blacks face higher costs of entry to

4896-406: The basin, it can form tributaries that change the structure of the land. There are three different main types, which are affected by the rocks and ground underneath. Rock that is quick to erode forms dendritic patterns, and these are seen most often. The two other types of patterns that form are trellis patterns and rectangular patterns. Rain gauge data is used to measure total precipitation over

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4992-687: The bayou. Public parks which connect to the greenway include (from west to east): Mike Driscoll Park, Arthur Storey Park, Hermann Park , MacGregor Park, and Mason Park. Arthur Storey Park doubles as a large stormwater detention basin which can hold up to 1.1 billion US gallons (4.2 × 10 ^  L) (about 3,376 acre feet ) of water during flood events. See also: List of companies in Houston See: List of colleges and universities in Houston [REDACTED] Category [REDACTED] Texas portal Drainage basin A drainage basin

5088-623: The decade. By 1980, the Brays Bayou watershed was home to a population of over 412,000, and inadequate drainage infrastructure was still a major concern. A 1976 flood caused major damage to the Medical Center, Rice University, the University of Houston , and institutions in the Museum District . Beginning in the 1970s, the Harris County Flood Control District began implementing restrictions on upstream development to reduce

5184-488: The density of public housing in low-income areas are supported by the fact that public housing units built between 1932 and 1963 were primarily located in slum areas and vacant industrial sites. This trend continued between 1964 and 1992, when a high density of projects were located in old core cities of metropolitan areas that were considered low income. In 1933, the federally created Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) created maps that coded areas as credit-worthy based on

5280-430: The discharge of water from a basin may be made by a stream gauge located at the basin's outlet. Depending on the conditions of the drainage basin, as rainfall occurs some of it seeps directly into the ground. This water will either remain underground, slowly making its way downhill and eventually reaching the basin, or it will permeate deeper into the soil and consolidate into groundwater aquifers. As water flows through

5376-588: The displacement of hundreds of thousands of primarily Black, low-income families since the 1980s. Critical race theory is used to examine the intersection of race and class in demographic changes in the U.S. " White flight " is one theory supporting the idea that biases formed based on racial concentrations of neighborhoods influence residential choice. White flight is the phenomenon of white families moving out of neighborhoods as they become racially integrated, perpetuating patterns of residential segregation. The racial white flight hypothesis states that this phenomenon

5472-441: The drainage area is dependent on the soil type. Certain soil types such as sandy soils are very free-draining, and rainfall on sandy soil is likely to be absorbed by the ground. However, soils containing clay can be almost impermeable and therefore rainfall on clay soils will run off and contribute to flood volumes. After prolonged rainfall even free-draining soils can become saturated , meaning that any further rainfall will reach

5568-692: The drainage basin to the mouth, and may accumulate there, disturbing the natural mineral balance. This can cause eutrophication where plant growth is accelerated by the additional material. Because drainage basins are coherent entities in a hydrological sense, it has become common to manage water resources on the basis of individual basins. In the U.S. state of Minnesota , governmental entities that perform this function are called " watershed districts ". In New Zealand, they are called catchment boards. Comparable community groups based in Ontario, Canada, are called conservation authorities . In North America, this function

5664-430: The employment gap along racial lines. Additionally, researcher VonLockette points out that a majority of low-income White people live in low-poverty neighborhoods, while a majority of low-income Hispanic and Black people live in high-poverty neighborhoods, creating a disparity in access to neighborhood resources, including networks for employment access, due to class disparities compounded with racial disparities. In 1948,

5760-509: The following section. Gentrification is another form of class- and race-based residential segregation. Gentrification is defined as displacement of lower-income, frequently minority residents by higher-income, typically White residents and businesses in urban neighborhoods. Gentrification in the U.S. has involved significant re-investment in previously disinvested neighborhoods and destruction of public affordable housing projects, targeting projects with majority Black residents, and resulting in

5856-419: The food available to them, which is mostly fast food and processed food from convenience stores, and have to travel farther distances to access healthy food options. A lack of a nutritional diet consisting of fresh fruits and vegetables can lead to increased health risks, such as increased risk of disease. Urban heat islands are areas of cities that have much higher temperatures than other neighborhoods due to

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5952-435: The ground and along rivers it can pick up nutrients , sediment , and pollutants . With the water, they are transported towards the outlet of the basin, and can affect the ecological processes along the way as well as in the receiving water body . Modern use of artificial fertilizers , containing nitrogen (as nitrates ), phosphorus , and potassium , has affected the mouths of drainage basins. The minerals are carried by

6048-744: The ground at its terminus, the area can go by several names, such playa, salt flat, dry lake , or alkali sink . The largest endorheic basins are in Central Asia , including the Caspian Sea , the Aral Sea , and numerous smaller lakes. Other endorheic regions include the Great Basin in the United States, much of the Sahara Desert , the drainage basin of the Okavango River ( Kalahari Basin ), highlands near

6144-408: The homes they lived in and did not have the means to move to more affluent areas where banks would authorize home loans. Due to the early discriminatory practices of mortgage lending, the black population remains less suburbanized than whites. Blacks, and to a lesser extent, other ethnic minorities remain isolated in urban environments with lesser access to transportation, jobs, health care and many of

6240-955: The housing market, and those that are able to seek housing in the suburbs tend to live in lower-income, less desirable areas just outside the city limits. "The United States Supreme Court defines steering as a 'practice by which real estate brokers and agents preserve and encourage patterns of racial segregation in available housing by steering members of racial and ethnic groups to buildings occupied primarily by members of such racial and ethnic groups and away from buildings and neighborhoods inhabited primarily by members of other races or groups. ' " The theory supporting steering asserts that real estate agents steer people of color toward neighborhoods that are disproportionately black and/or Hispanic, while white homebuyers are directed to primarily white neighborhoods, continually reinforcing segregation. In some studies, real estate agents present fewer and more inferior options to black homeseekers than they do to whites with

6336-531: The housing preferences of blacks are largely attributed to discrimination and white hostility, not a desire to live with a similar racial group. In other words, the study found that blacks choose specific residences because they are afraid of hostility from whites. Critics of these theories suggest that the survey questions used in the research design for these studies imply that race is a greater factor in residential choice than access to schools, transportation, and jobs. They also suggest that surveys fail to consider

6432-462: The income distribution. An analysis of historical U.S. Census data by Harvard and Duke scholars indicates that racial separation has diminished significantly since the 1960s. Published by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research , the report indicates that the dissimilarity index has declined in all 85 of the nation's largest cities. In all but one of the nation's 658 housing markets,

6528-526: The largest metropolitan areas across the U.S., including Atlanta , Baltimore , Chicago , Cleveland , Detroit , Houston , Los Angeles , New Orleans , New York , Philadelphia and Washington, DC . For Hispanics, the second most segregated racial group, the indices from 1980, 1990 and 2000 are 50.2, 50.0, and 50.9, respectively. Hispanics are highly segregated in a number of cities, primarily in northern metropolitan areas. Segregation for Asians and Pacific Islanders has been consistently low and stable on

6624-411: The leading cause of climate-related deaths, and are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change. In addition to factors like socioeconomic status and distance from job centers, residential segregation has a negative impact on employment opportunities for Black people, while not impacting White people's employment opportunities. A 2010 study found that residential segregation could account for

6720-615: The likelihood of flooding. In 2001, Tropical Storm Allison , the most destructive tropical storm in U.S. history, devastated the Brays Bayou watershed. 6,000 homes along the Brays were flooded, and the Texas Medical Center was inundated, damaging important medical facilities. Damage to the University of Texas Health Science Center alone exceeded $ 740 million ($ 1.2 billion in 2023 dollars). In May 2015, an extreme rainfall event flooded over 400 homes in Meyerland. One year later, in April 2016 ,

6816-488: The living environment at the neighborhood level". While it has traditionally been associated with racial segregation, it generally refers to the separation of populations based on some criteria (e.g. race, ethnicity, income/class). While overt segregation is illegal in the United States, housing patterns show significant and persistent segregation along racial and class lines. The history of American social and public policies, like Jim Crow laws , exclusionary covenants , and

6912-653: The market influences on housing including availability and demand. Existing data on the role of immigration on residential segregation trends in the US suggest that foreign-born Hispanics, Asians and blacks often have higher rates of segregation than do native-born individuals from these groups. Segregation of immigrants is associated with their low-income status, language barriers, and support networks in these enclaves. Research on assimilation shows that while new immigrants settle in homogenous ethnic communities, segregation of immigrants declines as they gain socioeconomic status and move away from these communities, integrating with

7008-559: The more infamous minority concentrated public housing projects in America were Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis and Cabrini-Green and Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago. Determining if a disproportionate level of public housing exists in low-income neighborhoods is hard because defining low, moderate and high income geographic locations, and locating projects in these locations is difficult. Assumptions affirming

7104-657: The native-born. Location of housing is a determinant of a person's access to the job market, transportation, education, healthcare, and safety. People residing in neighborhoods with high concentrations of low-income and minority households experience higher mortality risks, poor health services, high rates of teenage pregnancy, and high crime rates. These neighborhoods also experience higher rates of unemployment, and lack of access to job networks and transportation, which prevents households from fully gaining and accessing employment opportunities. The result of isolation and segregation of minority and economically disadvantaged communities

7200-449: The neighborhood was again impacted by floods. In 2017, the area was hit by significantly more severe flooding due to Hurricane Harvey . The Brays Bayou Federal Flood Risk Reduction Project , also known as Project Brays , is an ongoing $ 480 million project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) to retrofit the Brays Bayou watershed with new and improved flood control infrastructure. Overall,

7296-476: The operation of laundries, which were a source of employment and gathering places for Chinese immigrants. The ordinance withstood several legal challenges before the U.S. Supreme Court eventually struck it down because of its anti-Chinese motivations. The prominent real estate developer J.C. Nichols was famous for creating master-planned communities with covenants that prohibited African Americans, Jews, and other races from owning his properties. A decade later,

7392-1025: The outskirts of these areas, displacing Black families out of residential centers where they had previously lived. In 1949, Congress passed the 1949 Housing Act, which explicitly stated that the government could fund segregated housing projects. Beginning in the 1940s, the Federal Housing Administration created programs that encouraged White families to move into suburban neighborhoods by providing affordable mortgages, with racially restrictive covenants barring Black families from buying houses in these White neighborhoods. White families benefitted greatly from these programs, as it provided them with economic stability and accumulation of wealth due to increasing real estate values. As White families moved out of urban housing projects, previously White-only public housing projects allowed Black families to move in. Public housing became dominated by working-class Black families, who had limited access to employment and economic opportunities. These discriminatory housing policies are responsible for

7488-419: The population is dispersed across an area), isolation (within an area), concentration (in densely packed neighborhoods), centralization (near metropolitan centers), and clustering (into contiguous ghettos ). Hypersegregation is high segregation across all dimensions. Another tool used to measure residential segregation is the neighborhood sorting indices, showing income segregation between different levels of

7584-464: The project includes 75 individual components, including deepening and widening 21 miles (34 km) of the bayou, modifying or reconstructing 30 road bridges, and constructing four large stormwater detention basins with a total capacity of 3.5 billion US gallons (13 × 10 ^  L). Planning for Project Brays began in 1988 when the Army Corps of Engineers released a cost–benefit analysis for

7680-516: The race of their occupants and the age of the housing stock. These maps, adopted by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in 1944, established and sanctioned " redlining ". Residents in predominately minority neighborhoods were unable to obtain long-term mortgages on their homes because banks would not authorize loans for the redlined areas. Unlike their white counterparts, many minorities were not able to receive financing to purchase

7776-591: The racial wealth gap and persistent residential segregation between White and Black households today: the average Black family makes about 60% of the average White family's income, while the median net worth of a Black family is 10% of a White family's net worth. The index of dissimilarity allows measurement of residential segregation using census data, with values ranging from 0 to 100, where 0 indicates no segregation and 100 means complete segregation. It uses United States census data to analyze housing patterns based on five dimensions of segregation: evenness (how evenly

7872-418: The rainfall on the area of land included in its polygon. These polygons are made by drawing lines between gauges, then making perpendicular bisectors of those lines form the polygons. The isohyetal method involves contours of equal precipitation are drawn over the gauges on a map. Calculating the area between these curves and adding up the volume of water is time-consuming. Isochrone maps can be used to show

7968-625: The responsibility of the countries sharing it. Nile Basin Initiative , OMVS for Senegal River , Mekong River Commission are a few examples of arrangements involving management of shared river basins. Management of shared drainage basins is also seen as a way to build lasting peaceful relationships among countries. The catchment is the most significant factor determining the amount or likelihood of flooding . Catchment factors are: topography , shape, size, soil type, and land use (paved or roofed areas). Catchment topography and shape determine

8064-461: The river rather than being absorbed by the ground. If the surface is impermeable the precipitation will create surface run-off which will lead to higher risk of flooding; if the ground is permeable, the precipitation will infiltrate the soil. Land use can contribute to the volume of water reaching the river, in a similar way to clay soils. For example, rainfall on roofs, pavements , and roads will be collected by rivers with almost no absorption into

8160-734: The same socioeconomic characteristics. Even though the Fair Housing Act made discrimination in housing illegal, there is a belief that steering is still common. For example, real estate agents will assume white homebuyer's initial requests are an accurate reflection of their preferences, while they second guess a minority homebuyer's request, and adjust it to their personal perceptions. Moreover, some real estate agents will acknowledge that their actions are prohibited by saying such things as: A recent study of housing discrimination using matched pairs of home seekers who differed only in race to inquire about housing show that for those seeking rental units, blacks received unfavorable treatment 21.6 percent of

8256-431: The separation of black residents from other races is now lower than the national average in 1970. Segregation continued to drop in the last decade, with 522 out of 658 housing markets recording a decline. Despite recent trends, Black communities remain the most segregated racial group. The dissimilarity-index indices in 1980, 1990 and 2000 are 72.7, 67.8, and 64.0, respectively. Black people are hypersegregated in most of

8352-418: The speed with which the runoff reaches a river. A long thin catchment will take longer to drain than a circular catchment. Size will help determine the amount of water reaching the river, as the larger the catchment the greater the potential for flooding. It is also determined on the basis of length and width of the drainage basin. Soil type will help determine how much water reaches the river. The runoff from

8448-497: The suburbs or central cities . When looking at areas classified as "high-poverty" or "low-poverty" in 2000, about 14% of low-income families live in high-poverty areas and 35% live in low-poverty areas. More than half of all low-income working families are racial minorities. Over 60% of all low-income families lived in majority white neighborhoods in 2000. However, this statistic describes the settlement patterns mainly of white low-income people. Black and Hispanic low-income families,

8544-415: The time taken for rain to reach the river, while catchment size, soil type, and development determine the amount of water to reach the river. Generally, topography plays a big part in how fast runoff will reach a river. Rain that falls in steep mountainous areas will reach the primary river in the drainage basin faster than flat or lightly sloping areas (e.g., > 1% gradient). Shape will contribute to

8640-477: The time taken for runoff water within a drainage basin to reach a lake, reservoir or outlet, assuming constant and uniform effective rainfall. Drainage basins are the principal hydrologic unit considered in fluvial geomorphology . A drainage basin is the source for water and sediment that moves from higher elevation through the river system to lower elevations as they reshape the channel forms. Drainage basins are important in ecology . As water flows over

8736-403: The time, Hispanics 25.7 percent of the time, and Asians 21.5 percent of the time. Moreover, blacks interested in purchasing a home experienced discrimination 17 percent of the time, Hispanics 19.7 percent of the time and Asians 20.4 percent of the time. These conclusions are challenged because it is not clear what level of discrimination is necessary to make an impact of the housing market. There

8832-408: The two most racially segregated groups, rarely live in predominantly white or majority-white neighborhoods. A very small portion of low-income white families lives in high-poverty areas. One in three black low-income families live in high-poverty areas while one of every five Hispanic low-income families lives in high-poverty areas. National trends for homeownership show a general upward trend since

8928-524: The white majority would not allow public housing to be built in "their" neighborhoods unless it was reserved for poor whites. Black elected officials recognized the need for housing for their constituents, but felt that it would be politically unpopular to advocate for inclusionary housing. Of the 49 public housing units constructed before World War II, 43 projects supported by the Public Works Administration and 236 of 261 projects supported by

9024-753: The world's land. Just over 13% of the land in the world drains to the Pacific Ocean . Its basin includes much of China, eastern and southeastern Russia, Japan, the Korean Peninsula , most of Indochina, Indonesia and Malaysia, the Philippines, all of the Pacific Islands , the northeast coast of Australia , and Canada and the United States west of the Continental Divide (including most of Alaska), as well as western Central America and South America west of

9120-479: Was founded upstream Buffalo Bayou at the confluence with White Oak Bayou . Harrisburg would remain the region's primary trade center until after the American Civil War , when economic momentum shifted to Houston. Other early settlements along Brays Bayou included Riceville, founded in 1850, and Alief , founded in 1861. Frequent flooding along the Brays made its floodplain ideal for growing rice , which became

9216-561: Was illegal but many local governments continued to enforce racial segregation with alternative land use designations. Although there has been a supreme court passing in hopes to end racial disparities in residential zonings, it seems as though to date there is still evidence of racial disparities within residential zonings this is because of the "historically differing extent of political representation and advocacy between white and African American communities(Whittemore, 1). Zoning regulations presently isolate communities by wealth and income. Since

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