Updated:
27 March 2006
Database of Riverine Flood Hazard and Risk Studies (Australia, 1980-2004)
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Disclaimer
The material on this website is provided for general information only and should not be relied upon for any particular purpose. It is made available on the understanding that the Australian
Government is not thereby engaged in rendering professional advice.
In some cases the material may incorporate or summarise views, guidelines or recommendations of third parties. Such material is assembled in good faith, but does not necessarily reflect the
considered views of the Australian Government, or indicate a commitment to a particular course of action.
The Australian Government does not guarantee that the content, data or any other information output generated by this application, is complete or without flaws and therefore disclaims all liability
for any error, loss or damage that may arise out of, or in connection with use or reliance upon it.
While every attempt has been made to present the information obtained from the reports accurately, they may be errors. Therefore, Users should consult the original flood study themselves or relevant
experts to determine the fitness-for-use of the content, data or any other information output generated by this application. Users should also recognise that studies will be missing from the database
which fit within the scope of the database, and there may be studies included which are additional to the scope of the database.
Links to other websites are inserted for convenience and do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service.
Maps and images on this website are not intended for navigation or to precisely locate any particular feature.
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Overview
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Available study summaries
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Introduction
Following the acceptance of twelve Reform Commitments into natural disaster mitigation, relief and recovery arrangements in 2003 by the Council of Australian Governments; the Department of
Transport and Regional Services engaged Geoscience Australia (GA) to act as its technical advisor in a national program of natural hazard risk assessment. One step in this process by GA was the
development of a database of riverine flood studies completed in Australia between 1980 and mid 2004. The catalogue is the first attempt at assembling information on existing flood studies at a
national level.
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Scope of the database
The catalogue is limited to riverine flood studies in existing developed areas. Therefore, the catalogue does not generally capture information on studies into flooding primarily caused by storm
surge, tsunami, dam failure or stormwater. Flood studies for proposed developments have also been excluded as potential damage cannot be assessed. Data were collected for the full range of annual
excedence probabilities available, up to, and including, the probable maximum flood (PMF).
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Data collection
Information on riverine flood studies undertaken in Australia was collected by GA, with assistance from engineering consultants Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM) and Patterson Britton and Partners (PBP)
over an eight month period in 2004. The database fields were designed by GA in conjunction with SKM. PBP collected data for NSW and SKM collected data for the rest of Australia.
The primary source(s) of data varied between the states. In Victoria, for example, data were collected from the State Government agency responsible for flooding and from Melbourne Water. The list
of studies was then sent to each Catchment Management Authority for verification and subsequently a number of additional studies were added. In Queensland, however, studies were sourced almost
exclusively from local Councils, making the data collection exercise more difficult. Table 1 shows the primary source(s) of data for each State and Territory.
| State or Territory |
Predominant source(s) of studies |
| ACT |
ACT Department of Urban Services |
| Northern Territory |
NT Government Department of Infrastructure, Planning & Environment |
| NSW |
Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources |
| Local Councils |
| Queensland |
Local Councils |
| South Australia |
Transport SA |
| Tasmania |
Local Councils |
| Victoria |
Department of Sustainability and Environment |
| Melbourne Water |
| Western Australia |
Department of Environment |
Table 1 - Primary source(s) of data by State/Territory.
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Data fields
There were a number of fields in the database that were mandatory. These fields covered general information available for all flood studies, including the:
- name of the study
- state
- commissioning organisation
- lead consultant; and
- report date.
Additional fields were collected that fell into a number of non-mandatory categories. The non-mandatory categories could not be filled in for all studies, reflecting the different purposes of the
flood studies. An example of this is whether it was a study of the hydrology or hydraulic modelling of a particular floodplain. There were nine categories of non-mandatory information
including:
- terrain survey
- floor level survey
- hydrology
- hydraulic modelling
- flood inundation mapping
- flood hazard mapping
- damage assessment
- historical flood events used for calibration; and
- post-flood information.
The database was originally developed in Microsoft Access by consultants, but has since been redesigned in Oracle. The design of the database was comprehensive. Even where information for one of the
non-mandatory categories was available, data for all the fields within that category were not necessarily available. For instance, the horizontal and vertical accuracy for the terrain survey was not
listed in the majority of reports, even where a terrain survey had been undertaken.
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Limitations
Gaps in the data are inevitable, as this is the first attempt at producing an inventory of flood studies nationally. Some reports will be missing from the database, though every effort was made to
make the database as comprehensive as possible.
The usefulness of the database is limited by the information contained in the flood study reports. For example, a larger number of inundation or hazard maps may be available than those recorded in the
database. Many reports also did not provide the detail required for all the fields in the survey categories.
There may also be inaccuracies in the data entered as many people were involved in data entry. Therefore, users should not rely entirely on the information provided in the database, but are encouraged to
source the actual report of interest.
Inclusion of any particular report in the database does not mean that GA necessarily agrees or endorses the results.
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Acknowledgements
The development of this database was made possible through funding provided by the Department of Transport and Regional Services.
The cooperation of the many agencies involved is greatly appreciated.
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Publication
Further information on the database may be found in the following paper which was delivered at the NSW Floodplain Management Conference in February 2005:
Middelmann, M., Sheehan, D., Jordon, P., Zoppou, C., & Druery, C. (2005) ‘National Catalogue of Flood Studies’. NSW Floodplain Management Conference,
22-25 February 2005, Narooma.(170)
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Some of the documents on this webpage may be in PDF Format. Please download the Free PDF reader from Adobe to view these files.