After a 2 week visit to various agencies in south east Queensland Herman van der Most from Deltares provided some constructive feedback at a seminar at QUT in mid February 2016.

1. 11 maart 2016
Observations on and opportunities for
flood risk management and emergency
management in Queensland
Herman van der Most
Research seminar at QUT

2. Background of observations
 Visits to Wivenhoe dam, Ipswich city, State Disaster Coordination
Centre and related discussions
 Participation in various events and courses: Brisbane 2036 Floods
Hypothetical; intensive course on Leadership in Disaster
Management of CEDM (QUT) and other workshops
 Further reading of various publications.
 Own experience: policy and planning of IWRM and FRM in
Netherlands and abroad; mainly at Deltares research institute, but
also partly at policy department of Ministry of Infrastructure and
Environment
Disclaimer:
lot of information in short period of time; impressions to be verified
11 maart 2016

3. Main observations
• Very strong focus on response and recovery and only minor
attention to prevention.
 Just building back, In 2016 more buildings at risk than in 2011
(lessons learned?)
• Still limited attention for measures to take (at least at hypothetical)
• Brisbane River Flood Plain Management study still to start.
• Views of stakeholders in basin?
• Land use regulation by communities, city councils is a major
challenge
• Need and role is generally acknowledged, but implementation
faces various constraints (incl. legacy issues)
11 maart 2016

4. State Disaster Coordination Centre
11 maart 2016
Dedicated flood warning information within catchment context;
Prepare for better informed responses

5. Safety chain of EU Flood risk directive
 Prevention: preventing damage caused by floods by avoiding
construction of houses and industries in present and future flood
prone areas; by adapting future developments to the risk of
flooding; and by promoting appropriate land-use, agricultural and
forestry practices;
 Protection: taking measures, both structural and non-structural, to
reduce the likelihood of floods and/or the impact of floods in a
specific location;
 Preparedness: informing the population about flood risks and
what to do in the event of a flood;
 Emergency response : developing emergency response plans in
the case of a flood;
 Recovery and lessons learned : returning to normal conditions
as soon as possible and mitigating both the social and economic
impacts on the affected population.
11 maart 2016

6. Prevention and response: can have it both?
 In Queensland more attention needed for prevention. Better
regulation of land use would be a low regret measure.
 A shift to a more preventive approach is also being promoted and
adopted internationally (EU-countries; Sendai framework)
 NL is after 1953 a prevention dominated country. New flood
protection standards for 2050. But after hurricane Katrina growing
attention for evacuation and flood preparedness (NUWCReN).
 Need for finding a better balance in our approaches to flood risk
and emergency management: diversify our risk, looking into both
resistance and resilience
11 maart 2016

7. Flood mitigation strategies
Flood mitigation strategies can be divided into two separate
approaches – controlling the action of water through infrastructure
vs living and working with water through community awareness
and resilient, affordable housing design and construction.
What is needed it seems is the development of a measured solution
that combines many ideas, both infrastructure and social. How can
we create resilient citizens and resilient housing while at the same
time accepting risk and protecting communities at the macro-scale
if necessary?
How can these large and small scale approaches be affordable for
Government and local homeowners at the macro and micro level?
(From report on Brisbane Charette; James Davidson architect et
al; Dec 2014)
11 maart 2016

8. Leadership in the transition to a new paradigm
 Master classes on strategic level for government authorities and
community leaders on enhancing water governance of Brisbane
river catchment aiming at identification / acknowledgement of the
need for more integration on a river basin level, including need for
institutional arrangements / change.
 Parallel with intensive course on ‘Leadership in disaster
management’ organized regularly by CEDM of QUT?
 Serious gaming to raise awareness? Successfully adopted in New
Zealand to socialize adaptive thinking and to promote other views
and approaches
11 maart 2016

9. Legacy issues in flood risk management
 Legacy issues turn up in most discussions on flood risk
management to the extent that these issues seems to paralyze
intelligent management actions. Ability to change seems minor.
 Recurrent cycle of flooding, response and recovery. Lessons
learned should not only apply to a better response.
 Interdisciplinary research (law, public administration, spatial
planning, economics, estate development, insurance, etc..) to find
appropriate ways, acceptable to society, to overcome these legacy
issues.
11 maart 2016

10. River basin authority for Brisbane river catchment?
 Integrated river basin management promotes the integration of
water resources management, incl. flood risk management with
spatial planning and regional (economic) development
 Integration on a river basin scale will help to:
 Refrain of measures which significantly increase flood risk
elsewhere
 Give proper consideration to spatial planning policy, giving
room to the river, natural water retention measures and climate
change
 Facilitate the actual implementation of measures
 Continuity in policy development, in coordination among
communities, may require a special river basin authority
11 maart 2016

11. Long term vision on Brisbane river catchment
 Tune (future) land use to characteristics of river catchment:
potentials and limitations of the natural system
 Look into both floods and droughts as well as to sediment control
 Attention to co-benefits of green infrastructure through ecosystems
services (presentation Jim Smart at Hypothetical)
 Elements for such vision are already in place, but in a rather
scattered way
 Vision for the next decades and thereafter may be developed
through a research by design approach.
 ‘Design charrettes’ producing spatial plans which provide a
platform for integration and reconciliation of regional development
objectives with water and flood risk management objectives
11 maart 2016

12. Images from Brisbane Charette
11 maart 2016

13. Assessing future hazards of coastal flooding
11 maart 2016

14. Rationale for tiered planning zones
11 maart 2016

15. Ipswich: a pilot area for planning of measures?
 Expected increase in population from 175,000 (2011) to 435,000
(2031)
 Sensitive to flooding (located near confluence of Brisbane and
Bremer rivers)
 Ipswich Integrated water strategy 2015:
• Four strategic objectives with guiding principles
• High Priority Implementation Areas, incl. Floodplain
management strategy development and Establish an Ipswich
City Council water sensitive design (green infrastructure)
guideline
 Could be an interesting pilot area to elaborate the vision into more
concrete measures to be taken
11 maart 2016

16. Flood resilience
 Resilience is a buzz-word and triggers all kind of initiatives. For
example 100 Resilient Cities initiative of Rockefeller foundation
(Melbourne, Sydney)
 Be aware these concepts may have different meanings or
emphasis in different domains
 Operationalizing the concept of resilience for flood risk
management is also topic of research at Deltares
 Interesting presentation on Flood resilience in relation to business
continuity at the Hypothetical by Phil Cowling
11 maart 2016

17. Resilience or isolation?
11 maart 2016

18. Critical infrastructure: cascading impacts
 Interdependencies of various types of critical
infrastructure
 Workshop last Tuesday on CIRCLE-method.
 Possible application for Brisbane city or
Queensland?
 Transport infrastructure to be include;
presentation of Don Bletchly at Hypothetical
 Platform to engage network agencies/owners to
exchange information and to raise awareness
among stakeholders on interdependencies in
performance of critical infrastructure
11 maart 2016

19. Building back better?
 After 2011 floods the previous situation has been restored
(budgetary and political reasons)
 Question is not whether but when there will be a next flood
 Worthwhile to prepare for building back better after the next flood
 Experiences in NL (Deltaplan Large Rivers) and USA (Rebuild by
Design)
 Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction also promotes
concept of ‘building back better’
11 maart 2016

20. Concluding remarks
 Interesting and pleasant two weeks period here in Brisbane.
 Discussions and exchange of information, ideas help to question,
re-evaluate your own assumptions and approaches
 Always been a supporter of a proactive, prevention based
approach (better to prevent than to cure) and will continue to be so
 Better appreciation of response and recovery, and the importance
of preparing for these steps.
 In the end it is about diversifying our risk. Having a vision and
ambition makes many things possible.
11 maart 2016