Tulsa’s Journey to Resilience and Sustainability - Master Drainage Plans

Spurred by recurring floods in the past, Tulsa began a comprehensive drive to mitigate their flood risks.  The first step was to identify and understand local flood risks via basin-wide and city-wide master drainage plans.

Meshek has been a chosen partner for the City on many of these plans.  Over time, these plans can change as well.  Identified mitigation actions may need to be updated to reflect changing costs and conditions on the ground.  New funding options may suddenly appear.  Evolving technology may change a problem that used to be difficult into one that is solvable today.    

A few of our Tulsa master drainage plans include:

Perryman Ditch

This was a study within Tulsa’s local regulatory floodplain, beyond the limits of FEMA’s mapped floodplains. The basin is predominantly flat with overland flooding and a developed storm sewer system containing hundreds of inlets.

This area was difficult to study using older approaches, but this changed with the advent of 2D modeling.  Storm sewer pipes and inlet capacities were analyzed to determine their effective conveyance. The study included the development of design alternatives and cost estimates to mitigate the drainage and flooding issues within the watershed.

Joe Creek

Before this plan was even completed, the City won a FEMA grant (based on a benefit-cost analysis performed by Meshek) to obtain 3 flood prone properties.  There are several repetitive loss properties in the basin today, including some outside the boundaries of FEMA mapping. The final report of the Master Plan featured 44 problem areas, each with at least two proposed alternative mitigation actions (and one recommended action, each).