Brisbane and Gold Coast councils have both recently updated their flood risk awareness mapping.
A catastrophic year of flooding events along the east coast of Australia has demonstrated the urgency for flood preparedness and recovery initiatives.
In addition, a changing climate is altering weather patterns in these coastal cities and many areas are revaluating flood risks to consider in future land planning activities.
While the new flood risk awareness map produced for the Gold Coast currently has no implication on planning and building regulation, the updated information will be useful to engineers when considering flood risk on projects.
Using the Gold Coast flood risk awareness map residents and businesses can see how deep and fast flood waters may flow in different scenarios.
In late 2022, Brisbane City Council released a new interactive online flood tool backed with information from 1100 on the ground surveys, 21 hydrology models and 21 hydraulic models.
Like the Gold Coast map, Brisbane City Council’s tool will enable people to see the flood risk in their area. It also includes a new historic flood layer, displaying the February 2022 flood heights.
Engineers will play a key role in risk mitigation and preparedness initiatives, from town planning right through to innovative materials and technology used in infrastructure. These maps will help engineers to determine what risks and levels of protection may be expected for their projects in certain areas.
Engineers Australia Queensland General Manager Stacey Rawlings says engineering expertise will be a crucial component for planning and construction in flood affected areas.
“Engineers are also huge contributors to flood resilience efforts, helping to assess properties following extreme weather events to ensure infrastructure is safe for the community.”
“In the coming years flood modelling will only become more important for city planning and infrastructure building. So it’s important engineers continue conversations on flood risk developments and updated risk profiles,” Rawlings says.
To learn more about flood forecasting Engineers Australia’s Queensland Water Panel will be hosting an event to feature presentations on flood forecasting, delivered by Wen Wang from The Bureau (previously Bureau of Meteorology) and Simone De Kleermaeker from Deltares.
The ‘flood forecasting in a world of uncertainty’ event will be an opportunity for water industry engineers to discuss the future of forecasting, including forecast uncertainties, software products available and other historical extreme rainfall events.