Collaboration on technical and social flood issues – March 5, 2015

Collaboration that feeds technical and social issues into flood risk management solutions – how is this going???

In developing flood risk management plans and implementation programs, both technical and social issues come together. How we best capture, share and utilise technical information is well underway, but how do we know if we are engaging with the best social insights of communities at risk?  At this forum there is an opportunity to hear: (i) of approaches that are working on technical collaboration and (ii) where to start on building  an engaged flood aware community.

Leanne Reichard

International business developer – HydroLogic Amersfoort, The Netherlands

Collaboration and techniques to access, harness and share flood related information

Based on experiences to better design how Dutch agencies can collaborate and share their information, Leanne will:

  • Outline how all levels of government have come together to better share flood related data
  • Discuss the “Digital Delta” approach: unlimited and readily accessible provision of water and climate information services for the Netherlands
  • Introduce an Australian project looking at crowdsourcing apps, gauges, radars and satellite data for parts of Australia to generate rain and flood profiles
  • Share what this means for organisation to truly collaborate

Leanne has a MSc in Physical Geography and Hydrology. She has over 12 years experience in the design and implementation of operational ICT solutions to reduce flood and drought related damage. She currently works in 8 countries. In Australia she has initiated a number of projects in Victoria and Queensland.

Leanne’s powerpoint presentation

Kelly Fielding

Associate Professor – Institute for Social Science Research, University of Queensland

To collaborate with our flood exposed communities, what are the steps to initiate a sound understanding of their issues and ways to engage

Kelly has led significant interdisciplinary projects that focused on household environmental sustainability and social analyses of urban water management. Currently Kelly leads an interdisciplinary project on Social innovations and Behaviour change in the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities. In this presentation we will hear from Kelly on:

  • how insight into water literacy provides one way to also consider community perspectives on flood risk
  • steps to build the social profiles and values of our floodplain communities.

Dr Kelly Fielding is a social and environmental psychologist and ARC Future Fellow. Kelly’s research focuses on understanding the social and psychological determinants of pro-environmental decisions and behaviours and developing evidence-based individual and community strategies to increase pro-environmental actions.

Kelly’s powerpoint presentation