Council's flood risk management
Why are there some buildings in the floodplain?
Floodplains are where some of the world's most beautiful cities and towns are built. Historically, floodplains were an attractive area for people and settlements due to the associated fertile land and nearby water sources. The waterways provided transport routes for commerce and community.
As a result, many towns and communities within Queensland, including the Moreton Bay region, have been established on floodplains and in low-lying coastal areas. With limited historical flood information available, this land settlement pattern sometimes resulted in the establishment of land use and development in areas that we now recognise as being subject to flooding.
Such developments occurred before region-wide flood modelling became available. In 2009 Council commenced work on a floodplain risk management framework. This includes up to date flood modelling for the entire local government area. These flood models continue to be reviewed and updated as new catchment and flood information becomes available.
Flood risk is harder to manage in existing developed areas. Some measures to manage flood risk include:
- flood warning and emergency evacuation
- property modification, such as flood resilient building design and raised buildings
- flood mitigation measures that can modify flood behaviour through the use of infrastructure
- regulation of new land use and development in flood hazard areas through the planning scheme.
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How does Council currently consider flood risk for new land use and development?
In 2016, Council was the first local government in Queensland to integrate flood risk into a planning scheme.
The current planning scheme contains a flood hazard overlay and a coastal hazard overlay. These identify areas at risk of flood hazards and coastal hazards. The flood hazard overlay identifies river and creek flooding as ‘high risk’ and ‘medium risk’ flood hazard areas, as well as the remainder of the floodplain within a ‘balance flood planning area’.
The coastal hazard overlay identifies areas at risk of coastal hazards, specifically ‘high risk’ and ‘medium risk’ storm tide inundation, as well as a ‘balance coastal planning area’. Any proposed development within the mapped extent of these overlays must demonstrate compliance with the requirements of the overlay codes in the planning scheme to minimise flood risks and prevent additional flood impacts.
Council provides Flood check development reports for anyone proposing a new building and/or development works to help them understand the flood-related requirements of Council's planning scheme.
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Why does Council continue to invest in flood modelling?
Council has invested in best practice flood modelling to understand flood hazard such as extent, depth or velocity for different sized floods within our area. Understanding the behaviour of smaller frequent floods or rarer extreme floods helps identify the potential for damage to homes, community facilities, businesses and critical infrastructure and risks to life, providing Council with relevant information to assist in planning, flood mitigation and disaster management. It can also help you plan for a flood emergency. You can look at the results of flood modelling using Flood Viewer.
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How is climate change considered?
Council is currently undertaking a major update of the region's flood information. This update is being undertaken for current climate and catchment conditions as well as for future conditions. The future climate conditions will include increased rainfall intensity and sea-level rise as projected for the year 2100.
Read more on how Council considers climate change.
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How does Council manage flood risk before and during a flood event?
The Moreton Bay region is no stranger to floods. Council has continually improved
- flood information available to our community
- how we plan, manage and respond to flood risks.
Before an event
Council regularly updates its flood modelling across the entire region, using the most up to date information and best practice flood modelling methods, to inform all aspects of flood risk management including:
- flood risk awareness and education
- flood mitigation
- land-use planning and building and development controls (planning scheme)
- Flood check property reports, which include information to help relate the flood levels at flood warning gauges to possible flood levels on a property.
During an event
Council implements multiple measures to contribute to the safety and wellbeing of our community during a disaster including the use of:
- flood warning gauges (water level and rainfall gauges)
- public information
- flood warning alerts
- flooded road warning systems
- flood warning smart signs
- Moreton Alerts
- evacuation centres
- emergency services such as swift water rescue teams
- evacuation for high-risk areas.
Read the Local Disaster Management Plan(PDF, 5MB) to learn more about Council's flood emergency responses.
All of these actions work together to improve community resilience to future flood events. After every significant flood event, Council staff survey flood markers and analyse flood warning gauge information. This information is then used to validate and refine our flood models to help make them as accurate as possible.
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My home or business is in a floodplain, what can I do to reduce future flood impacts?
Some homes, buildings and infrastructure may benefit from ‘flood resilient’ or ‘flood smart’ building design, which can be achieved through retrofitting, adapting and modifying existing structures. The purpose of flood smart building design is to reduce flood damages and make cleaning up after a flood easier, so people can recover more quickly. Council’s Your flood smart buildings guideline provides information for anyone who would like to adapt their home or building to be more flood smart.
If you live in a flood-prone area, you should:
Visit Get Ready Queensland or disaster management and preparedness for more information
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How does Council currently consider inundation from sea and estuaries?
Our region is unique as we experience tidal and storm tide inundation in our coastal and estuarine areas. Inundation from this type of flooding is usually related to a severe weather system such as a cyclone or tropical low-pressure system or can be from very high tides.
Council is currently preparing a comprehensive Coastal Hazard Adaptation Strategy to understand and plan for the likely impacts of change on our coastal landscape resulting from coastal hazards including:
- storm tide inundation
- coastal erosion
- sea-level rise
- climate change.
The strategy includes identifying adaptation options to respond to current and future coastal hazard risks. As part of the project, Council is currently developing a suite of potential adaptation options to manage coastal hazard risks, including:
- education and awareness
- coastal monitoring
- land-use planning
- nature-based
- coastal engineering.
Under an overlay map within the planning scheme, new development and redevelopment of properties must address potential flood and coastal hazard risks, including the required floor level and fill and built form needed to reduce flood and coastal hazard risks to properties.
Learn more about how coastal hazards are addressed under the planning scheme.
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