National Centre for Flood Research

Newsletter Issue 1February 2019

Taking a more adaptive approach to dealing with floods needs real expertise, creativity, and willingness to change. It’s vital that we ensure that our efforts in the National Centre for Flood Research will contribute to that process, and that our work will engage with and be relevant to those involved in dealing with these disastrous events.

To achieve this, it is worth thinking about some of the key principles of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction especially to:

• «Build Back Better» forpreventing the creation of, andreducing existing disaster risk(this is something we shouldreally take on board in Australia)• Accounting for local and sitespecific characteristics ofdisaster risks when determiningmeasures to reduce risk.

https://www.unisdr.org/we/coordinate/sendai-framework

You may also have seen the announcement about funding for flood research made at Southern Cross University. This is great news for our work at the National Centre for Flood Research, and should provide the opportunity to really expand the

Flood Research Centre, to become more closely aligned with the vital flood response teams in the region, under the umbrella of what in his funding bid, the Vice Chancellor has called the ‘National Institute for Flood Resilience’. This broader remit in the funding bid has a much wider appeal to government agencies as it encourages more hands-on integrated and applied research, rather than the more conceptual work done at other institutions.

Professor Caroline Sullivan Establishment Director

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The National Centre for Flood Research An international partnership bringing cutting-edge science

to find world-class, practical solutions

Townsville �loods

As scientists, what we need to do now is to impress on decision makers to ensure that decisions made about infrastructure, urban and rural planning and all future developments must be adaptive - they must be made on the assumption that the earth system we operate in is a dynamic one, so static solutions cannot be relied on to ensure �lood security into the future.

 

 

 

The end of January 2019 saw the beginning of an unprecedented rainfall event, which continued for more than 10 days, and resulted in widespread �looding impacting on some 20,000 homes across the city and its suburbs. Maps from the Bureau of Meteorology illustrate how the area received more than a year’s rainfall in just a few days. In the last week this has been spreading west and although bringing much needed moisture to the west side of the Great Dividing Range, in some areas that rainfall has also been excessive, resulting in major stock and infrastructure losses for some farmers.

A look at the location of Townsville does give us some idea of how such a huge impact on the community can happen, nestling as it does between the quite steep slopes of Mount Stuart and Cleveland Bay in the Coral Sea. Sited predominantly along a low-lying coastal plain, much of the town’s development has occurred below the 20 metre contour line, with some key infrastructure such as the railway station, the post o�ice,  and �ire station all having been located in the downtown area as the town evolved since its establishment in 1864. 

 

 

In response to this event, the independent Inspector-General of Emergency Management is to review key preparedness and response elements to monsoonal rains in Queensland.

This legacy of urban development is very common in many towns and cities across the world, and this should act as a warning for us when we consider the potential inundation impacts of climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports have for decades been suggesting that changes in the distribution of rainfall along the East Coast of Australia are highly likely, but great uncertainty remains about how those rainfall events will be distributed across both time and space.

This means that we are now facing a new normal – we can no longer base our plans on evidence from the past.

In the most recent report from 2018, the IPCC suggests with a high degree of con�idence that both coastal and �luvial �looding will increase throughout the world as mean global temperatures rise. This is a signi�icant �inding for Australia, which has a longer continuous coastline than any other country.

The take-away message from this is that �loods will occur in any location when we get ‘too much rain’. What constitutes too much rainfall is determined by the site speci�ic location and the infrastructure standards put in place as a result of past decisions.

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NEWS

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Dr Ken Doust, (left), Ben Roche Vice President (Engagement), Tanya Plibersek, Labor candidate Patrick Deegan, Vice Chancellor Adam Shoemaker, Professor Caroline Sullivan and Professor Mary Spongberg.

Southern Cross University unveiled plans today to create a new national institute to assist flood-prone communities and build their resilience.

The National Institute for Flood Resilience will be headquartered at the University’s Lismore campus, which lies at the centre of the most active flood-plain in Australia outside the tropics.

The National Institute will apply a systems approach to flood risk, response and mitigation through critical national and international partnerships.

The National Institute will address exactly the sort of crucial issues being presented by vulnerable flood affected communities across Australia: how to plan, predict and respond to one of nature’s most savage events.

Nearly 80% of all natural disasters in the world since 1970 have been flood-related.

This new National Institute was the focus of a funding commitment of $12.3m by the federal Australian Labor Party when Opposition Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek visited the University on Tuesday February 5.

“The new Flood Resilience Institute will build on the existing investment and work undertaken over recent years by Southern Cross University,” Vice Chancellor Adam Shoemaker said.

“Specifically, this strengthens dramatically the establishment in 2017 of the National Centre for Flood Research; and the two decade-long operation here on campus of the emergency evacuation centre for households and businesses in the Lismore region.”

Lismore is a regional city of 27,000 people located inland of Byron Bay on the NSW Far North Coast. In 2017, Lismore was hit by the most damaging floods in more than 40 years off the back of Cyclone Debbie.

The National Institute for Flood Resilience will evaluate and test new approaches to increasing flood resilience across all sectors of the regional environment - social, economic, ecological and cultural - within flood-affected communities in Australia, and overseas.

“This region is a living laboratory for flood research and flood preparedness. This new Institute will undertake work of national and international significance, drawing on a diverse range of fields from environmental science, business, law, engineering, coastal waters, education and health,” Professor Shoemaker said.

Labor’s commitment towards the Institute comes from its proposed University Future Fund.

Flood resilience: a pressing national focus for Southern Cross University5th February 2019

This funding pledge is an excellent indication of a healthy future for the National Centre for Flood Research, as this will be the key research component of this interesting multi-agency initiative. Contingent on political outcomes in future elections, this potential funding will become available to support the centre in 2020. In the meantime, we continue to seek funding through project and program applications for flood research. Anyone who would like to discuss these with us, please get in touch and we will see what collaborative support we can provide.

EventsFloodplain ManagementAustralia NSW/ACT Chapter Meeting and= =Workshop, Sydney 21st February

Place: The Bureau of Meteorology, 300= =Elizabeth Street, Sydney (Opposite= Central Railway Station)

Time: 10:00am Morning Tea for 10:30am= =Meeting. A light lunch will be available at= the conclusion of the meeting

Workshop Time: 1:45pm until 3:00pm Workshop Topic: Developing a Public= Website for Local Government Flood Data= in NSW – NSW State Emergency Service= and O�ice of Environment and Heritage.

Network with �lood colleagues from= councils, government agencies,= consultants, insurers and product= providers – if you are not yet a Member= please come and �ind out what FMA is all= =about.

Please advise proposed attendance to= =Dominique Jovanovic : projectservices@floods.org.au or Glenn Evans: eo@floods.org.au

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Richmond Rivers Rescue Inc (RRR) Notice of Annual General Meeting and NSW Election Candidates Forum,= = Lismore 21st February

Place: Lismore Workers ClubOrder of business: 5:00pm Registration and light= = refreshments 5:30pm RRR Business meeting 6:00pm River update, including details of the Rous Watershed Initiative6:30pm NSW Election Candidates forum and= Q & A 7:00pm Collection of nominations for RRR committee

Interested members of RRR and the= = public are welcome to attend to ind out= = more about the latest initiatives to restore= the river as well as hear from state= = election candidates (from 6.30pm) on= = their respective positions.

Are you keen to do more to save our river? We’d like to hear from people= interested in serving as o�ice bearers of the RRR Committee for the coming year. If you’d like to nominate yourself, or know= someone with skills to offer, please contact us for more information Richmondriversrescue@gmail.com

7Photo:Greg Carpentier, facebook

Art Exhibition

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Location: M-ARTS Precinct, Proudfoot Lane and Brisbane Street, Murwillumbah, NSW 2484

InformationOpen access materials on our website Open Access Modelling https://anuga.anu.edu.au/

Thanks to Rudy VanDrie from the Central Coast Council

Mud soaked papers which survived the devastation of ex-tropical Cyclone Debbie feature in an art exhibition by Southern Cross University visual arts Honours alumnus and

Tweed artist, Heather Matthew.

Official opening: 5pm (NSW) Friday March 15.

scu.edu.au