Bundaberg Flood Gauge Mapping
Overview
Following numerous Queensland flood events, Bundaberg Regional Council (BRC) was forced to action a new Burnett River flood mapping plan. The council delivered a publicly available flood mapping tool ensuring Queensland communities can more easily understand flood events and make better-informed decisions.
Situation
Bundaberg experienced one of the largest floods in its history when the Burnett River rose to over 9.53m. Over 7,500 residents were evacuated, and property and infrastructure endured extensive damage.
Traditional flood studies and maps are primarily used for disaster management, understanding potential infrastructure impacts, and land use planning. Flood studies produce maps of flood extent, depths, levels, and velocities based on various annual exceedance probability.
While appropriate for land use planning and setting habitable floor levels, they are not suitable for flood emergency management. An understanding of expected property inundations was inevitably required. Dwayne Honor, BRC’s Manager of Design explains that “The simple question everyone wants answered is—What does a given flood mean to me on my block of land?”
Action
The council fast-tracked development of an online mapping tool capable of identifying locations where property inundation is expected. Promising residents a swift completion prior to storm season, the project team helped implement a public-facing Geocortex Essentials website providing users with more accurate likelihoods of flood expectations.
Steven Bowden, BRC’s GIS Team Leader, explained that “The flexibility of the Geocortex Essentials workflow manager to support the concept of pick a gauge, pick a height, see the results, as well as the ability to deliver the system across a wide range of mobile devices, was key in choosing the VertiGIS Studio technology."
Result
Anxious communities drove BRC to deliver a simplified, more comprehensive flood mapping tool to provide peace of mind to Bundaberg residents. Expected inundation details are now easily accessible after reinforcing a once-deteriorating relationship between BRC and the community.
Client
Bundaberg Regional Council (BRC)
Location
Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia
“The public want and need facts about a given flood. A simple map that says at this gauge height you can expect this inundation on your block allows the public to increase their resilience by allowing them to make informed decisions in response.” – BRC’s Dwayne Honor