The Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center and the George R. Brown School of Engineering at Rice University have announced plans to launch two research projects on nature-based carbon credits funded through a gift from Emissions Reduction Corp.
The projects seek to develop tracking and evaluation systems for the emerging nature-based carbon credit market, expanding on the commitment from the Rice School of Engineering to make nature a partner in engineering design.
In the first project, the SSPEED Center is commissioning the design of a digital monitoring, reporting and verification (dMRV) system for tracking nature-based carbon credits using satellite and drone imagery to monitor soil, forest and coastal blue carbon projects. The system will be designed to directly input this data into blockchain and other record-keeping technologies. BCarbon, a Houston-based local nonprofit carbon registry, and Change Code, a blockchain provider, will also take part in the research. Work on the project is expected to be completed in approximately six months.
In the second project, the SSPEED Center will undertake hydrologic computer modeling to determine the effectiveness of restoring native prairie grasslands as a flood control technique. Here, a portion of the Brazos River will be modeled relative to predicted increases in the frequency of so-called 100-year floods due to climate change.
The project will evaluate whether prairie restoration funded via soil carbon credits could mitigate flooding risk, eliminating the need to raise the 30 miles of levees in Fort Bend County downstream of the carbon projects. This work will be undertaken in association with the Fort Bend County Flood Control District, The George Foundation and BCarbon. The study is expected to take approximately 12-18 months to complete.
“The Rice School of Engineering is very interested in research into nature-based engineering solutions,” said Luay Nakhleh, the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Engineering and a professor of computer science and biosciences at Rice. “For too long, we have used nature as a platform but not as a partner. This research will hopefully open the door on a new era of nature-based engineering. Moreover, this is a very timely initiative as bringing science to bear on the emergent carbon credit economy is of critical importance to meeting the challenges of a changing climate.”
U.S.-based Emissions Reduction Corp. has provided the research gift to Rice with the goal of accelerating global decarbonization through carbon sequestration, avoidance and reduction projects. Marin Katusa, CEO of Emissions Reduction Corp, said “Data transparency and third-party verified results and co-benefits using dMRV will become mandatory for nature-based engineering projects to attract capital from the carbon trading markets to further fund nature-based engineering projects to repair, protect and advance the environment.”
Philip Bedient, the Herman Brown Professor of Engineering and SSPEED Center director at Rice, has been working on Houston-area flood analysis and mitigation solutions for decades.
“Using nature to solve flooding problems has been discussed but seldom executed at the level of a major river system,” Bedient said. “We are excited that carbon credits and prairie restoration might break open this nature-based flood engineering area.”
Jim Blackburn, co-director of the SSPEED Center, added, “Since Hurricane Ike, we have been investigating how paying landowners for the ecological services of their land — their prairies, their forest, their wetlands — can create positive flood benefits. Both projects will offer important insights into the benefits of carbon credits beyond the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Nature-based engineering has a very real role in the engineering education of the future.”