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Maintenance or Management?
Many people would categorize differentiating the terms "maintenance" and "management," as they relate to the Harris County Flood Control District's infrastructure, as an exercise in semantics. Not so.
Managing and maintaining the District's infrastructure involves several approaches, utilizing different departments (and sometimes third parties) that can often complement one another.
What is Maintenance?
One could use the analogy of the yard around the home. Maintenance of the yard includes a variety of things including but not limited to:
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Mowing the grass |
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Trimming around sidewalks, trees, flower beds and other items where the growth of grass would be unsightly |
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Trimming the shrubs |
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Trimming or pruning the trees |
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Removing dead or diseased trees |
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Pulling weeds from the flower beds to eliminate the unsightliness and competition between the flowers or shrubs and the weeds |
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Applying herbicides to combat weeds, grasses, and insects that are attacking the yard |
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With all the things involved in maintaining a yard, maintaining the District's drainage network is much the same... only our yard (in terms of actual mowing distance) is about 9,000 miles long, and we mow it up to three times a year. That's more than once around the world every year
More Than Just Mowing
We often hear that, if mowing is not occurring, then maintenance is not being done. Mowing is required to help stem the growth of undesirable vegetation (not just grass) within our drainage network, but it is by no means the only task the District utilizes for maintenance of the infrastructure. In fact, in some cases, it may not be required at all. The District regularly performs all of the above tasks, in one form or another, within the entire drainage network, ensuring that it operates at full capacity. In some cases, a construction project may also be required as part of maintaining the infrastructure to repair a "broken" channel.
What is Management?
"Management" is understanding the needs of every piece of property or right-of-way in the drainage infrastructure and applying the proper resources to satisfy those needs. The Property Management Department is responsible for evaluating all District right-of-way and determining what is needed to ensure the functional uses of the right-of-way are being achieved. Every right-of-way in essence has an "owner's manual" for what the short and long term objectives are. The functional uses cover a range of activities, including leases, conservation, tree planting, wildflowers, respecting permit restrictions, trails, parks, etc.
Others outside the District have a role in managing the right-of-way. Whether the District is approached by a civic group that wants to sponsor a community garden, or a municipality that wants to develop recreation amenities or have a greater role in mowing rights-of-way within their city limits, we are eager to enter into partnerships with third parties.
Both Pieces to a Puzzle
So, as you can see, maintenance and management of the infrastructure fit together to accomplish the third part of the District's mission... "maintaining the infrastructure."
To maintain the infrastructure effectively, it must be properly managed.
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