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Floodplain Management Program

The Floodplain Management Program is a continuing DNR program which responds to the severe emotional and economic losses individuals and communities can suffer as the result of floods.

Local councils have lead responsibility for managing flood prone areas, but DNR plays a key role by helping these councils manage flood threats faced by their residents.

The Department supports the creation and implementation of floodplain risk management plans by local government to enable them to manage flood risk in their own communities. We provide advice on policy, modelling, management options, planning and environmental considerations, and support local councils in their bid to involve and education the community about flood risk. Our staff have a high degree of technical skills in a number of valuable areas such as engineering, floodplain ecology, and land use planning and have a wide range of practical experience in floodplain risk management.

In the last 10 years alone DNR has provided some $120M in funding for floodplain risk management projects. This has resulted in around $240M investment to numerous floodplain risk management projects across the State. In general two–thirds of this funding comes from the State Government (the Commonwealth may provide one-third for some projects), with local council providing the remaining one–third.

Councils use this funding to undertake projects to understand flood risk, assess how it can best be managed, and to implement projects to reduce the flood threat to the community. Project funded include:

Flood investigations to understand flood behaviour and assess options to both develop flood prone land and mitigate flood risk to existing development. Figure 1 shows the spread of current plan preparation projects across the State; and
Works projects such as the building of levees and detention basins, voluntary purchase and/or raising of houses in areas at high flood risk. Figure 2 shows the spread of current plan implementation projects across the State.

Urban Floodplain Management Achievements to Date

Over the past 20 years DNR's Floodplain Management Program has had a major impact on the way our flood risk is handled through the development and implementation of these plans.

The Government’s $120M investment over the last 10 years has enabled local government to understand and reduce the risk to their flood affected communities.

Local Government have been able to develop over 100 floodplain risk management plans with technical assistance from DNR. These plans enable Councils to undertake works and control development to effectively management of flood risk to existing and future development. Figure 3 illustrates the spread of these plans across the State.

In addition, funding has enabled councils to undertake a range of major projects to reduce the flood threats to their communities. Some examples of major projects funded through the program include Warren Levee, Lismore Levee (which limited damages in the June 2005 flood), Deniliquin Levee, Bathurst Flood Mitigation Scheme, Grafton and South Grafton Levees (which were successful in limiting the impacts of flooding in 2001), Campbelltown Flood Mitigation Projects, and work in areas such as Wollongong and Gosford.

The effectiveness of funded mitigation works is evidenced by the flood threat to towns, such as Lismore and Grafton from flood events in 2005 and 2001 respectively. Tens of millions of dollars ($10Ms) were saved by these communities in these flood events alone. The success of projects such as Grafton and Lismore levee clearly illustrates the value and importance of the support offered to local councils and communities by the Department.