Australia has experienced devastating floods in recent years which have resulted in significant financial loss and disruption to communities. Even though flood events have regularly impacted Australian communities comparatively few research initiatives have been taken in Australia to address the flood vulnerability of buildings and to develop cost-effective mitigation strategies.
Estimation of flood losses is considered to be a crucial component of flood mitigation decisions that are increasingly being made on the basis of cost-benefit analyses. Geoscience Australia (GA) has developed flood loss models based on the observations from the 2011 Queensland floods as a fundamental contribution towards flood management. The aim was to improve and augment existing loss models for residential, commercial and industrial buildings. Further, a dataset of flood losses collected through field and postal surveys was then utilised to validate the developed models.
Building on research to date, GA now leads the Cost-Effective Mitigation Strategy Development for Flood Prone Buildings Project within the new Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre (BNHCRC). The overall aim of this research project is to develop an evidence base to inform decision making on risk mitigation for flood prone buildings. The work will focus on benefit versus cost analysis for key mitigation options at the building level.
This paper provides an overview of the GA's work on flood vulnerability and describes the future research activities of the BNHCRC project and anticipated outputs.
References:
Maqsood, S.T., Senthilvasan, M., Corby, N., Wehner, M. and Edwards, M. (2013). Improved assessment of flood impact: an urban storm water case study of a City of Sydney catchment. Proc. Floodplain Management Association National Conference, Tweed Heads, Australia
Wehner, M., Maqsood, S.T., Corby, N., Edwards, M. and Middelmann-Fernandes, M. (2012). Augmented vulnerability models for inundation. Technical report. GA Record No. 74107. Geoscience Australia, Canberra, Australia
