People can argue forever about what caused Harvey's rain to fall in the quantity it did... however -- no one can argue about the water having no place to go except UP into homes, businesses and infrastructure.  This from 2005!
"... biologists say wetlands are now vanishing from the Houston region faster than from any other urban area in the nation. A new study found that 13 percent of inland, freshwater wetlands in Harris County were filled or drained over the past decade and the vast majority were lost since 2000. If the development continues, most of the region's freshwater marshlands could disappear in 20 years.
Responsibility for wetlands in Houston, and along the entire Texas coast, rests on the shoulders of Casey Cutler, the controversial chief of compliance for the regulatory branch of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District.
...the district's drain-fill-and-pave approach to wetlands management could soon become standard practice nationwide. "