Certain areas of our city can flood during high rainfall, which could cause significant damage to property, infrastructure, and put public safety as risk.
To prepare for future flood events, we have undertaken work to identify the urban areas where flooding may be a risk.
Our flood studies and maps were developed to guide decisions around planning for new developments, identifying potential mitigation options and ways to improve stormwater infrastructure and community safety.
The availability of more accurate information about the flood risk to your property may affect your property’s flood insurance, so it is a good idea to contact your insurance provider to make sure you are adequately covered.
Flood zone research
We engaged engineering consultancies GHD, Cardno and Engeny Water Management to undertake detailed flood studies of the urban areas in the City of Clarence.
These flood studies adopted the approach recommended by national guidelines for flood modelling in Australia. The studies use AEP (annual exceedance probability), which is the likelihood of a storm event occurring in any given year and is usually expressed as a percentage.
A 1% AEP storm event has a one percent chance of occurring in any given year. Likewise, a 5% AEP storm event has a five percent chance of occurring in any given year.
Computer models were set up using historical flood events, which allow us to estimate the extent of urban flooding for a range of different rainfall events. This includes several scenarios including a 5% AEP flood, a 1% AEP flood and other flood scenarios related to climate change.
Our flood mapping shows the 1% AEP flood, which is the storm event which we use to implement town planning and building controls, and plan for the safety of the public.
More information
The Bureau of Meteorology has a PDF on what to do before, during and after a flood: http://www.bom.gov.au/water/floods/document/What_todo_floods.pdf
Additional information on what you can do to manage and prepare for a flood situation is found on the State Emergency Services and the Tas Alert Services websites: