New handbook: Flood Emergency Planning for Disaster Resilience
Flooding poses a significant risk to Australian communities and it is essential that proactive flood emergency plans are developed to guide responses.
The new handbook, Flood Emergency Planning for Disaster Resilience, provides guidance to inform the development of flood emergency plans by outlining a series of national principles and processes. Key considerations are outlined for specific capabilities and environments. The handbook is applicable to all communities across Australia and all levels of planning. It will also assist to provide guidance and information applicable to total warning systems and community engagement.
The handbook supersedes a review of three Flood Manuals originally developed in the 1990s and last updated in 2009:
- Flood Preparedness (Manual 20)
- Flood Response (Manual 22)
- Emergency Management for Planning for Floods Affected by Dams (Manual 23)
This handbook addresses changes to flood emergency planning and the broader issues that have emerged and that are understood more clearly since publication of the manuals in 2009, including:
- the nature of flood risks, improvements in flood information
- development of a National Framework for Flood Warning Infrastructure
- changes in technology that facilitate improved information and its sharing
- risk assessment
- critical importance of community engagement
- shift in consequence based thinking
- focus on interoperability
- scenario modelling.
AIDR partnered with Floodplain Management Australia (FMA) to host the Flood Emergency Planning for Disaster Resilience Handbook Showcase webinar on Thursday 19 November to launch the handbook. Webinar participants heard from five expert speakers as they unpacked the national principles and guidance presented in the handbook and outlined how other handbooks in the Australian Disaster Resilience Handbook Collection apply to flood risk management.
AIDR is grateful to Ian Dinham – President of FMA, Andrew Gissing of Risk Frontiers, Mike Lollback of Local Government Association Queensland, Angela Toniato and Duncan McLuckie of NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, and Tamsin Achilles of Victoria State Emergency Service for sharing their insights and experiences with flood emergency planning.