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What is in the Strategic Floodplain Management Plan for the Brisbane River, our communities and us, as professionals?

Unpacking the Strategic Floodplain Management Plan for the Brisbane River

Since the Floods of January 2011, there has been an extended effort to initiate, undertake and finalize a Strategic Floodplain Management Plan for the Brisbane River floodplain and catchments.  In March 2019, the SFMP was launched and over the last 5 years the Flood CoP network has had a long interest on what it might entail and what it means for professional working in sectors that overlap with the actions arising out of the Plan.

Participants

Local government

City Smart
Ipswich City Council
Lockyer Valley Regional Council
Logan City Council
Somerset Regional Council
SEQ Water

State government

DNRME
Queensland Fire and Emergency Services
Queensland Reconstruction Authority

Research

Australian Rivers Institute
CRC for Water Sensitive Cities
Floodplain Management Australia
International WaterCentre
Queensland University of Technology
University of Queensland

Consultants

Arup, BMT, Cook Consultancy, DHI, Ethos Urban
Herd Holdings Pty Ltd, IC berg, Jacobs
Synergy Solutions, Water Modelling Solutions
Water Technology Pty Ltd

Others

Red Cross

Piet Filet – Flood Community of Practice Convenor – launched the event of Monday 15th July with an interactive presentation to initiate feedback from participants…

Find the full report of the real-time feedback provided during the event at the end of this page.

Purpose of the event

  1. Build an understanding of why and how the SFMP was developed and what it entails.
  2. Introduce the themes of efforts needed to implement the actions.
  3. Consider the collective effort and tools needed to implement the actions.

Piet Filet introducing Graeme Milligan from QRA

Graeme giving an introduction to the SFMP

Phil Haines from BMT presenting the work behind the SFMP

First group activity

First group activity

First group activity

Liz Jones from the Lockyer Valley Regional Council sharing her reacitons to the SFMP

Historian Margaret Cook

Second group activity

Second group activity

Presentations

The half day event had short sharp presentations from a series of speakers. In the links below, you can access two of those presentations.

  • Graeme Milligan, Queensland Reconstruction Authority, click here.
  • Phil Haines, BMT, and David Corkill, Ethos Urban, click here.

Activity 1 – First impressions of the SFMP

Participants randomly formed 8 groups and were asked to capture key features of the strategic actions outlined in the SFMP. Some of the apparent keywords amongst groups were: Connectivity, Resilience and Education.

Click to see the maps and the initial general impressions for each group on what they thought were some key aspects of the bundle of Actions that are now in play to bundle a more resilient floodplain and communities living there.

Activity 2 – Unpacking the actions 

After afternoon tea, each group selected an action from the SFMP to discuss the key aspects in delivering that Action.  Each team in fact undertook a mini scoping exercise on (i) the benefits that could be realized from this project, (ii) the tools need to plan and/or implement that action, (iii) the collaborators that need to be involved, and (iv) some of the constraints that may impact stakeholder buy-in and commitment across the region.

Click here to read each group’s feedback. 

Which are the actions of the SFMP?

Closing Panel Session

Our panel members summarised the reflections on the day and the SFMP. The panel was conformed by Kaye Cavanagh from Ipswich City Council, Will Prentice from Logan and FMA, historian Margaret Cook and Collin Sivalingum from the Red Cross.

To hear their various perspectives click here to see and listen to Part 1 and Part 2 of the final session – plenty of interesting perspectives .

At the end of the group exchange and presentations and the panel sessions, participants were asked to answer final Piet launched the event with an interactive presentation to initiate feedback from participants…

Click here to see the full report of the real-time feedback provided during the event.

What’s next?  

Join us in our next event on Tuesday 13th of August “Adaptation Pathways: Planning for our uncertain WaterFutures”. The event will be hosted at QUT’s Kelvin Grove campus, where you will have the chance to see first-hand the digital sphere – the only one in the world!!

Click here to register.

Fluvial Transect – an engagement and vision building tool for a shared...Adaptation Pathways: Planning for our uncertain WaterFutures