Managing and understanding flood risk
Key points
- Climate change is continuing to increase local flood risk.
- As heavy rainfall events increase, severe storms occur more often, and the sea level rises, it’s time to get prepared in the event of flooding.
- Land use planning must consider flood risk aligned to a 100-year flood event as well as projected changes to flooding driven by climate change.
How does Council manage flood risk?
Council is continually working to reduce the risks and impacts of flooding across the shire, which includes:
- Regular maintenance of the stormwater drainage network which includes removing rubbish, silt, tree roots, grass, vegetation and other blockages.
- Upgrading and replacing our drainage systems as required.
Planning controls
Building and land use planning controls are applied to manage and minimise the impacts of potential flooding.
We apply the following flood planning controls as required:
- Urban floodway Zone (UFZ): this overlay applies where the potential flood risk is high. It controls land use and development, with land use restricted to low intensity uses such as recreation and agriculture.
- Special Building Overlay (SBO): this overlay identifies areas prone to stormwater, or overland flooding when the capacity of the drainage system is exceeded.
- Land Subject to Inundation Overlay (LSIO): this overlay applies to land affected by flooding associated with waterways and coastal areas.
- Floodway Overlay: this overlay applies to land that is identified as carrying active flood flows associated with waterways and open drainage systems and high hazard areas.
Find more about the planning scheme zone and overlay controls affecting your property.
Note: the extent of planning controls affecting a property may change over time, as more information becomes available about climate change scenarios, projected hazards and their risk levels.
Considering climate change
Council’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy 2022-33 guides our approach to building adaptive capacity across the community and planning for climate change risks.
Under the strategy, we plan for a variety of actions in flood prone areas including:
- making sure emergency relief centres are accessible to all residents
- providing information to assist the community
- considering the needs of vulnerable residents.
Flood modelling
By 2026, Melbourne Water is planning to update flood models across the Port Phillip and Westernport catchments, including Cardinia Shire.
The models will consider climate change projections to the year 2100 alongside local knowledge. This will help us better plan and prepare for future flood events.
These flood maps will enable a more consistent approach to identifying the location and severity of flood risks, supporting proportionate responses. The maps are expected to assist with:
- emergency response to flooding
- Council stormwater drainage management, maintenance and capital works programs
- supporting planning at the interface of flood control and integrated water management
- reduce flood risks for future development
Melbourne Water and Council will share more information on this process when available.