HCFCD Launches New Flood-Bond Dashboard

9/18/25 – Just-in-Time Data! Harris County Commissioners have been begging for up-to-date information about the 2018 Flood Bond since February. Today, they will see a new Flood Bond Dashboard. It should enable them to make better, more timely decisions about flood-bond projects.

At times in the last few months, Commissioners requests became both blunt and brutal. But last night, HCFCD launched a new interactive dashboard on the 2018 Bond page of their website. The dashboard shows detailed information about the overall status of the bond and each project within it.

Drilling Down Through Data

The dashboard includes two main sections.

• The first includes summary graphs. It also provides a path to information about every bond ID and project.
• Selecting one or more Bond IDs in the first section pulls up a map of the project(s) in the second, bottom section.

Info boxes next to the map pop up and show additional information, including which stage of the project lifecycle the project is currently at. It’s a powerful and helpful tool that HCFCD intends to continue improving.

Take a Guided Tour

Below are some screen captures that illustrate the dashboard’s functionality.

Four main buttons across the top graphic let you drill down into information about the bond and projects within it.

Financial Summary

Clicking Financial Summary shows the total of secured funds plus where they came from.

Hovering over any one of the segments in the circle graphs translates percentages to absolute dollar amounts.

Project Summary

Clicking the Project Summary Button displays information about the total number of bond IDs and their project components.

Again, placing your cursor over a segment of a graph pulls up additional information about that segment.

Watershed Summary

The Watershed Summary table lets you compare spending to date and “funds remaining” within each watershed.

Project Overviews

The last button, Project Overviews, lets you drill down into any Bond ID and its associated projects to learn more information about them. Scroll up or down to select a bond ID or multiple IDs. Then check the one(s) that interest you.

Dragging left over the right hand part of the columns reveals more hidden columns.

In addition to the columns shown above, you can find information about the status of planning, engineering, and construction, as well as an ETA for construction.

Interactive Map

When you select a bond ID and then click the Map Query Button, the system highlights the location within the county.

Clicking on the location (represented by a dot) within the map then pulls up an info box that contains a narrative about the project. The box also includes lifecycle data and a close-up map of the project and its boundaries. See below. I checked Kingwood Diversion Ditch and then clicked on “Map Query.”

If you don’t know the Bond ID, start with the map and work in reverse. Clicking on one of the many dots on the map will still pull up the info box. From there, you can see the bond ID and then find the information in the table.

Other Related Information

The dashboard is still a work in progress. It launched last night. So give HCFCD a little time to work out any kinks you may find.

HCFCD plans to update the information quarterly and also issue a new Bond Update that incorporates dashboard information.

Check out the three summary reports at the top of the page:

• Secured Partnerships
• Definition of Secured Partnerships
• List of All Bond IDs

Finally: this dashboard will supplement, not replace the Microsoft PowerBI tables or Excel Spreadsheets found elsewhere in HCFCD’s Activity section.

Watch Discussion in Commissioners Court Today

Commissioners will use this information today in Court to discuss the future of the flood bond.

Reportedly, commissioners’ staffs have used this information to eliminate some projects that had no or little benefit. They will recommend redeploying funding from those to remaining projects.

They also reportedly discovered that the budget shortfall was smaller than previously discussed and that they should be able to fund every project that already has partnership dollars attached.

That sounds like good news. However, this is a political process. So, I hesitate to make any predictions. Watch the discussion of Item 117 on the Agenda.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/18/2025

2942 Days since Hurricane Harvey

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