Flood emergency management decision support system on the Gold Coast, Australia

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Author(s)
Mirfenderesk, Hamid
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2009
Metadata
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Gold Coast has long been rated as the most vulnerable area subject to flooding in Australia (Smith, Handmer 2002). In recent years there has been a growing concern worldwide about climate change impacts including sea level rise, increased frequency and severity of storms and changes in rainfall patterns. Implications resulting from these changes include increase in the risk of flooding. Therefore, future floods are more likely to overwhelm existing protection measures more frequently, exposing us to more residual risks. Addressing the issue of an increase in residual flood risk, Gold Coast City Council has been developing a ...
View more >Gold Coast has long been rated as the most vulnerable area subject to flooding in Australia (Smith, Handmer 2002). In recent years there has been a growing concern worldwide about climate change impacts including sea level rise, increased frequency and severity of storms and changes in rainfall patterns. Implications resulting from these changes include increase in the risk of flooding. Therefore, future floods are more likely to overwhelm existing protection measures more frequently, exposing us to more residual risks. Addressing the issue of an increase in residual flood risk, Gold Coast City Council has been developing a flood emergency decision support system as part of a 10 year flooding and drainage plan. This system integrates Council's flood modelling capacity, properties, infrastructure and population data into a single easy-to-use package. Using this system, emergency managers are able to have access to valuable forecasted flood information. The Decision Support System (DSS) is designed mainly to assist in a post-disaster situation; although currently it is being used for pre-disaster flood emergency planning. As a post-disaster measure it can identify vulnerable population and assist in the evacuation of the population at risk. Its availability on the Internet allows it to be potentially used for implementation of flood emergency procedures by vulnerable places such as child and aged-care centres. This paper provides a description of the elements of the system that has been developed or implemented so far, provides a brief description of the elements that are planned to be developed in future, make recommendations on how such systems can be improved and how their improvements can contribute to better flood emergency management.
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View more >Gold Coast has long been rated as the most vulnerable area subject to flooding in Australia (Smith, Handmer 2002). In recent years there has been a growing concern worldwide about climate change impacts including sea level rise, increased frequency and severity of storms and changes in rainfall patterns. Implications resulting from these changes include increase in the risk of flooding. Therefore, future floods are more likely to overwhelm existing protection measures more frequently, exposing us to more residual risks. Addressing the issue of an increase in residual flood risk, Gold Coast City Council has been developing a flood emergency decision support system as part of a 10 year flooding and drainage plan. This system integrates Council's flood modelling capacity, properties, infrastructure and population data into a single easy-to-use package. Using this system, emergency managers are able to have access to valuable forecasted flood information. The Decision Support System (DSS) is designed mainly to assist in a post-disaster situation; although currently it is being used for pre-disaster flood emergency planning. As a post-disaster measure it can identify vulnerable population and assist in the evacuation of the population at risk. Its availability on the Internet allows it to be potentially used for implementation of flood emergency procedures by vulnerable places such as child and aged-care centres. This paper provides a description of the elements of the system that has been developed or implemented so far, provides a brief description of the elements that are planned to be developed in future, make recommendations on how such systems can be improved and how their improvements can contribute to better flood emergency management.
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Journal Title
Australian Journal of Emergency Management
Volume
24
Issue
2
Publisher URI
Copyright Statement
© 2009 Emergency Management Australia. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
Environmental Science and Management not elsewhere classified
Clinical Sciences
Policy and Administration
Communication and Media Studies