STORMS & FLOODING
Adaptation is preparing for increased and more intense storms and flooding
The Grampians Region will experience increasingly frequent and severe storm activity over the coming decades, including increased incidence and severity of riverine, urban stormwater and flash flooding. This will have disruptive consequences for households, industry and public infrastructure, transport and power transmission. Clever adaptation can head off the foreseeable productivity downturns and health impacts around storm and flood events.
| Adaptation plans and actions already underway | Lead agency | |
| FloodZoom | DELWP | |
| Flood damage emergency response | State Emergency Service (SES) | |
| Local flood guides | SES, catchment management authorities and local governments | |
| Municipal flood emergency plans | SES and local governments across the Region | |
| Grampians Regional Emergency Management Plan | Regional Emergency Management Planning Committee (REMPC) | |
| State Emergency Management Plan | Emergency Management Victoria (EMV) | |
| Integrated water management forums | Water corporations and catchment management authorities | |
| Municipal Emergency Management Plans | Local governments across the Region | |
| Floodplain management strategies | Catchment management authorities | |
| Victorian Rural Drainage Strategy | DELWP | |
Leading opportunities
- Using sophisticated research to inform planning and preparation for storms and floods.
- New approaches to floodplain management mean less severe flood events, and more productive retention of water in the land between events.
- Data-driven approaches can enable more optimal deployment of emergency services and better workload management for their personnel.
- Building preparedness for emergencies also builds community resilience and social capital.
- Streamline replacement and compensation arrangements for flooded homes (especially where no permit to rebuild is likely, due to flood risk).
- Switch the planning focus onto predicted flood levels, rather than historical maximum levels.
Main barriers
- Much of the existing building stock is vulnerable to storms and flooding.
- Mitigating flood risks requires cooperation from diverse public and private land users. Even where the legislation is in place to accelerate action, effective adaptation requires broad buy-in from stakeholders.
- Declining and ageing populations in rural and regional communities tend to diminish the resources available for emergency preparedness and response in those locations.
- Recovery funding only rebuilds ‘like for like’, rather than more climate adapted infrastructure.
Belinda Marchant from State Emergency Service (SES)
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the First Nations Peoples of the land and waters that we live, care and work upon within the Grampians Region. We respect the continuous culture that has been embedded into history for thousands of years. We pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
