Using the Weather Research and Forecast model—a numerical model for simulating weather and climate at regional scales—and statistical models, we quantify the contribution of urbanization to rainfall and flooding. Overall, we find that the probability of such extreme flood events across the studied basins increased on average by about 21 times in the period 25–30 August 2017 because of urbanization.

Zhang, W., G. Villarini, G.A. Vecchi, and J.A. Smith, Urbanization exacerbated the rainfall and flooding caused by hurricane Harvey in Houston, Nature, 563, 384-388, 2018.