Abandoned buildings and paved-over vacant lots are cranking up the heat in Houston. Local leaders have some avenues for turning down the temperature — without having to break out the bulldozer.
New research from a Texas A&M University team shows that empty buildings and vacant lots are raising land surface temperatures by up to 20 degrees in parts of Houston, exacerbating record-high heat across the region.
The findings, based on drone images and NASA satellite data, echo prior Kinder Institute research showing several sections of Harris County routinely run hotter than other neighborhoods, including Alief, Houston’s East End and southwest Houston.
There’s no official tally on the number of abandoned buildings or vacant lots in Houston, but large parts of the region have been highly developed over the decades. More than half of the land in some neighborhoods is impervious, meaning the ground surface cannot absorb rainfall and other water.
While the findings might point to demolition as a solution for Houston’s abandoned property problem, Dingding Ren, a lecturer in architecture and urban planning at Texas A&M and lead researcher on the project, said local leaders have cheaper, more environmentally friendly options at their disposal.
In particular, Ren pointed to redevelopment of abandoned buildings into urban greenhouses, vertical gardens and community hubs as more affordable options for local governments.
“Instead of tearing down vacant buildings, cities like Houston should consider repurposing them in ways that support environmental goals and local economies,” Ren said.
“Demolition releases large amounts of (carbon dioxide) and construction waste, which undermines sustainability efforts. By contrast, adaptive reuse — transforming existing structures into productive spaces — can preserve embodied energy while contributing to urban cooling and revitalization.”
Thinking beyond trees
To date, Harris County and city of Houston leaders haven’t invested heavily in converting vacant buildings into greenspace. They also have spurned expensive demolition projects as they deal with tight budgets.
Ren sees the potential for local leaders to get more involved in addressing abandoned buildings and vacant lots.
Ren said local governments could foster public-private partnerships to revitalize unused spaces. He also floated the possibility of government agencies offering tax incentives, grants or zoning flexibility for adaptive reuse and green infrastructure projects, particularly if they help connect residents and improve transportation.
Houston City Councilmember Mario Castillo supported the general idea, saying the city should create policies that reward commercial and residential developers including green infrastructure in their plans.
“When you think about the sprawl of Houston and these developments that have huge amounts of paved parking, that is a huge opportunity,” Castillo said. “We’re going to need to find a way to address that if we really want to tackle heat mitigation in a comprehensive way.”
Lisa Lin, Harris County’s director of sustainability, said maintenance costs, flooding concerns and other challenges must be factored into greening and cooling strategies. Still, Lin said Ren’s research highlights the need for action.
“What’s great about Dr. Ren’s study is that thinking about green infrastructure at all scales is so important,” Lin said. “It shows that there can be a network of green infrastructure applications and projects that can serve the region more broadly.”
Steps toward a cooler Houston
For now, local officials and urban planners are taking small steps to cool down neighborhoods throughout Houston.
Castillo, who represents multiple north Houston neighborhoods, launched last month the Resilient H initiative. As part of the plan, the city will transform a main road through Near Northside — Cavalcade Street between I-45 and I-59 — into a “cool corridor” with new vegetation and bus stop shelters. The initiative also calls for upgrading green spaces and parks, establishing green building standards and planting 500 large trees accompanied by 50-gallon rain barrels.
“If you're walking and don't have tree canopy, you're getting hit by the heat from the ground up,” Castillo said.
In southwest Houston, where residents are the most vulnerable to heat-related health risks, mitigation efforts have been underway for several years.
Harris County Precinct 4 has led the implementation of the Greener Gulfton community action plan and the revitalization of Burnett Bayland Park. It has also partnered to plant and maintain 2,000 trees in the Barbara Quattro Alief Forest, which will add tree cover to nearly eight miles of roadways in the neighborhood, and will join the city of Houston next year to begin construction on the $4 million Uplift Gulfton & Sharpstown project that includes planting trees and building shade structures on sidewalks.
“What we can do on the public sector side is to make sure we’re revamping a lot of public infrastructure, whether it’s streets, parks or community centers,” said Luis Guajardo, director of Precinct 4’s Planning & Community Development division and a former senior policy specialist at the Kinder Institute.
“We want to bring investments to the area that change the composition of a lot of the hard infrastructure and use the latest and greatest in our portfolio of materials.”