Flood resilience
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Introduction
Around the world, the challenges of population growth, urban densification and a changing climate mean that communities are facing higher levels of flood risk, especially those close to waterways and the coast.
Research findings and reports
Our research on flood resilience has identified some interesting findings:
- Long term flood resilience can be best achieved through coordinating policy, infrastructure and urban design through a Retreat, Adapt and Defend method. (An interdisciplinary and catchment approach to enhancing urban flood resilience: a Melbourne case)
- Engaging the community in the decision making process can uncover innovative solutions and create more flood resilient communities. (Towards a water sensitive Elwood: a community vision and transition pathways)
- As part of an integrated approach, flood resilience should be considered with other objectives such as water supply, ecosystem services and societal benefits, to maximise the quality and value of infrastructure investment. (Flood resilience in water sensitive cities: guidance for enhancing flood resilience in the context of an Australian water sensitive city)
- A combination of rainwater tanks and flood proofing households was the most effective to build resilience in an assessment of flood adaptation measures in Melbourne. (Flexible adaptation planning process for urban adaptation in Melbourne)
- The variability of climate and property development make long term flood management decisions more challenging. Adaptable flood management strategies, such as urban planning policy, can be more effective than one off investments like property acquisition and drainage works. (Assessment of urban pluvial flood risk and efficiency of adaptation options through simulations: a new generation of urban planning)
You will find a range of research reports on flood resilience under the categories below.
Drainage
- Using the multiple benefits of SuDS tool (BeST) to deliver long-term benefits
- Value of SuDS beyond urban flood management: The ecosystem services value of green/blue solutions
- An interdisciplinary and catchment approach to enhancing urban flood resilience: a Melbourne case
Adaptation planning
- Adaptation mainstreaming for achieving flood resilience in cities
- Flexible adaptation planning process for urban adaptation in Melbourne
- Flexible adaptation planning for water sensitive cities
- Structuring Climate Adaptation through Multiple Perspectives: Framework and Case Study on Flood Risk Management
- Evaluation of Retrofitting Options in Urban Drainage Systems based on Flexibility: A Case Study for Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Basin in Ho Chi Minh City
- Coping capacities for improving adaptation pathways for flood protection in Can Tho, Vietnam
- Resilience approach to urban flood risk management systems using real in options – a review
Retention and detention
- Modelling the impact of retention–detention units on sewer surcharge and peak and annual runoff reduction
- Urban retention basin in developing city: from theoretical effectiveness to practical feasibility
Modelling
- Assessment of urban pluvial flood risk and efficiency of adaptation options through simulations – A new generation of urban planning tools
- Describing concurrent flood hazards in a risk assessment decision framework using a Bayesian network methodology
- Explanatory analysis of the relationship between atmospheric circulation and occurrence of flood-generating events in a coastal city
- Simulating flood risk under non-stationary climate and urban development conditions – Experimental setup for multiple hazards and a variety of scenarios
- An interdisciplinary and catchment approach to enhancing urban flood resilience: a Melbourne case
Research application
Our flood resilience research has been applied to a range of project sites:
- We applied our flagship research synthesis process to develop flooding solutions for Norman Creek, Fishermans Bend, Elwood and Sydenham to Bankstown which apply the Adapt, Retreat Defend flood resilience framework.
- The Norman Creek Catchment Design Investigation project in Brisbane used a design-led approach to flood resilience for new high density development in floodplains.
- Flood resilient design guidance for flood prone cities and towns in Queensland identifies the opportunities and barriers to putting flood resilient design into practice.
- The Adapt, Retreat, Defend framework can be applied to a small scale urban redevelopments such as Western Australia's Batavia Coast Marina, and to large scale redevelopments in south east Queensland's Ripley Valley.
- A greenfield residential development at Aquarevo in Lynbrook, Victoria demonstrates the potential of integrated water management with intelligent network technologies and closed-loop systems to manage flooding.
- We proposed strategies for managing flooding in developed urban areas of Norman Creek, Brisbane and Elizabeth Street in Melbourne’s CBD. We also proposed strategies for redeveloping flood prone industrial or brownfield land for high density residential and mixed uses in Melbourne's Arden Macauley and Fishermans Bend.
- The Forest Park ecological wetland demonstrates how city wetlands can provide flood mitigation as well as support for biodiversity by providing local aquatic and terrestrial habitat.
Norman Creek
Arden Macaulay
Elwood
Other
Tools and guidelines
Informed by our flood resilience research, we have developed several industry tools and guidelines for use by practitioners:
- The WSC Scenario Tool assists with planning urban development, water networks and population over time to assess optimal water sensitive city scenarios.
- Designing for a cool city: Guidelines for passively irrigated landscapes provides guidance on using passive irrigation to help manage stormwater flows. These systems capture, filter and take up stormwater, which improves stormwater quality entering downstream environments, and reduces the volume and speed of flows.
- The Flood damage assessment outlines a procedure for assessing flood vulnerability as a crucial input of flood risk assessment.
- Guidelines incorporated flexible adaptation processes from the automobile and aerospace industries into urban flood resilience.
- The Appropriate flood adaptation guide outlines a step-by-step approach for adaptive planning that aims to enhance resilience against climate related flooding.
- The Stormwater Runoff from Green Urban Areas Modellers’ Guideline provides urban flood modelling and mitigation measures as part of climate change adaptation.
Infographics
Infographic 1
Framework for flood resilience in towns and cities – fluvial and pluvial (Gersonius et al., 2016. Flood resilience in water sensitive cities: guidance for enhancing flood resilience in the context of an Australian water sensitive city. Melbourne, Australia: CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, p. 24.)
Infographic 2
A framework for flood risk (Olesen L et al., 2017. Flood damage assessment: literature review and recommended procedure. Melbourne, Australia: CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, p. 4. )
Infographic 3
Procedure for damage assessment (Olesen et al., 2017. Flood damage assessment: literature review and recommended procedure. Melbourne, Australia: CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, p. 22. )
Infographic 4
Overview of flood damage classes with examples (Olesen et al., 2017. Flood damage assessment: literature review and recommended procedure. Melbourne, Australia: CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, p. 8. )
Infographic 5
The ‘4 RAP’ model of available strategies to enhance flood resilience (Gersonius et al., 2016. Flood resilience in water sensitive cities: guidance for enhancing flood resilience in the context of an Australian water sensitive city. Melbourne, Australia: CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, p. 25.)
Infographic 6
Mapping of interventions to enhance flood resilience using the ‘4 RAP’ scheme (Gersonius et al., 2016. Flood resilience in water sensitive cities: guidance for enhancing flood resilience in the context of an Australian water sensitive city. Melbourne, Australia: CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, p. 27.)
Infographic 7
Analysis procedure used to incorporate flood resilience in WSUD (Gersonius et al., 2016. Flood resilience in water sensitive cities: guidance for enhancing flood resilience in the context of an Australian water sensitive city. Melbourne, Australia: CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, p. 38.)
Infographic 8
Links between the main components of the urban flood model (Tomicic B and Andersen HS, 2015. Stormwater runoff from green urban areas: modellers’ guideline. Melbourne, Australia: CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, p. 6.)
Infographic 9
Five stages of Adaptive Planning with Adaptation Tipping Points (ATPs) and Adaptation Pathways (APs) (Veerbeek et al., 2016. Appropriate flood adaptation: adapting in the right way, in the right place and at the right time. Melbourne, Australia: CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, p. 8.)
Infographic 10
The retention–detention unit (Locatelli et al., 2015. ‘Modelling the impact of retention–detention units on sewer surcharge and peak and annual runoff reduction’. Water Science and Technology, 71(6), pp. 898–903.)
Infographic 11
Role of retention basins in urban flooding (Nguyen et al., 2014. Urban retention basin in developing city: from theoretical effectiveness to practical feasibility. 13th International Conference on Urban Drainage, 7–14 September, Sarawak, Malaysia.)
