The National Flood Risk Informaiton Project (NFRIp) has produced a flyer for the Engineers Australia Convention on 24-28 November 20014 where the Australian Rainfall and Runoff (ARR) guidelines will be promoted. NFRIP funded the revision of the guidelines as part of a $12m funding initiative by the Australia Government. The flyer promotes the three core activities of NFRIP; the Australian Flood Risk Information Portal (AFRIP), revision of Australian Rainfall and Runoff guidelines and Water Observations from Space (WOfS).

In this study, various hydrochemical approaches were used to understand recharge processes in shallow (<120m) unconsolidated alluvial sediments in a 7,500 km2 area of the Darling River floodplain. Pore fluids were extracted from sediments from 60 sonic-cored bores, and together with surface and groundwater samples, provided a hydrochemical dataset with over 1600 samples and 25 analytes. Major ion chemistry highlights a mixing signature between river waters, the shallow unconfined aquifer and the underlying semi-confined Calivil Formation aquifer. These represent the fresh groundwater resources near the river and are Na-(Ca-Mg)-HCO3-Cl waters. Away from the influence of river leakage, the regional groundwater is more saline and sodic with an evolved Na-Cl-SO4 watertype. The mixing associated with river leakage is also supported by age dating. Stable isotope data show that recharge is episodic and linked to high-flow flood events rather than continuous river leakage, as demonstrated by hydrographic monitoring. The combination of surface water and groundwater sampling, the pore fluid analyses and fuzzy-k means (FCM) cluster analysis, provides a novel, relatively simple but powerful tool to assist with interpretation of groundwater processes. The FCM cluster analysis used analytes that were present in at least 60% of samples and resulted in samples being classified into eight classes (or hydrochemical facies). Pore fluids and groundwater with the greatest affinity to the surface water samples were easily identified. In this way, sites with significant active recharge, principally by river leakage, were mapped. Downhole plots of the pore fluid FCM classes provided additional insights into groundwater processes. Comparing the FCM classification of pore fluids within the target (semi)confined aquifer with those from the overlying clay aquitard and shallow aquifer allowed the assessment of vertical inter-aquifer leakage.

User Manual - Australian Flood Studies Database Search

There are a number of factors which influence the direct consequence of flooding. The most important are depth of inundation, velocity, duration of inundation and water quality. Though computer modelling techniques exist that can provide an estimate of these variables, this information is seldom used to estimate the impact of flooding on a community. This work describes the first step to improve this situation using data collected for the Swan River system in Perth, Western Australia. Here, it is shown that residential losses are underestimated when stage-damage functions or the velocity-stage-damage functions are used in isolation. This is because the functions are either limited to assessing partial damage or structural failure resulting from the movement of a house from its foundations. This demonstrates the need to use a combination of techniques to assess the direct economic impact of flooding.

The datasets created to produce the emergency mapping support products which contributed to fulfilling GA's arrangements in supporting the outcomes sought by the Australian Government during disaster events.

The Risk Research Group at Geoscience Australia (GA) in Canberra is a multidisciplinary team engaged in the development of risk models for a range of natural hazards that are applicable to Australian urban areas. The Group includes hazard experts, numerical modellers, engineers, economists, and a specialist researching social vulnerability. The risk posed by riverine flooding to residential buildings is an important component of the work undertaken by the Group and is the focus of this paper. In 1975 researcher Richard Black published a report titled Flood Proofing Rural Residences as part of a multidisciplinary investigation of flood risk management in the USA. Black's research produced a number of curves describing combinations of water depth and velocity theoretically required to move a flooded house from its foundations. These so-called 'Black's Curves' have been referenced by numerous researchers worldwide since their publication. The houses used in Black's study are small by modern standards, and construction materials used in Australia can differ from those used in Black's research.

With the average annual cost of floods estimated at $377 million, floods are Australia's most expensive natural hazard. As a result, considerable expenditure is made by government and industry to define flood areas in an effort to reduce the impacts of floods. This work typically involves the creation of reports describing the methodology used, data sources and results of hydrological and hydraulic modelling and damage assessments. While numerous reports are developed each year, there was no centralised record of what studies had been undertaken in Australia at a state/territory or national level until the development of the Australian Flood Studies Database in 2004. In 2009 Geoscience Australia reviewed the Australian Floods Studies Database via an online questionnaire. Opinion of the database was sought in three key areas including database functionality and content, and updating the database. The respondents confirmed the usefulness of the existing database content including hydrology and hydraulic scenarios, historical flood events used in the calibration, terrain and floor level surveys, damage assessments, inundation and hazard scenarios, information on what has occurred since a study's completion and related studies. Recurring themes highlighted by the survey respondents include the ability to be able to access the flood study reports and GIS flood layers via the database and be able to input data. Over 170 people completed the survey; 90% of whom were from local government. While only 20% of respondents had used the database, 72% of all respondents to the survey indicated that they would use the database in the future, whether or not they had used the database in the past. Three main recommendations can be concluded from the survey responses. The first recommendation is that the Australian Flood Studies Database is updated and that the lead agency for floodplain management in each State/Territory be responsible for that update on at least an annual basis. The second recommendation is that the database's existing functionality and content is maintained and further enhanced. The final recommendation is that the database is further publicised.

Widespread flooding and associated damage in south-east Queensland during January and February, 2011 have demonstrated the importance of flood risk assessment. Flood risk assessment requires knowledge of the hazard, nature of properties exposed and their vulnerability to flood damage. Flood risk assessment can addresses different aspects of flood risk, i.e., hydrological, structural, economic and social aspects. This report presents the results of work undertaken by Geoscience Australia during 2011-2012 to further the understanding of the vulnerability of Australian buildings to inundation. The work consists of three parts: 1. Development of vulnerability curves for inundation, without velocity, of residential homes of the types encountered during surveys following the January, 2011 flooding in south-east Queensland. 2. Development of vulnerability curves for inundation, without velocity, of building types typical of the Alexandria Canal area of the inner south of Sydney. 3. Development of vulnerability curves for inundation with velocity (storm surge) of residential homes of the types encountered during surveys following TC Yasi, February, 2011.

The satellite images below show the dramatic effect on the land of recent heavy rain, causing floodwaters to inundate south-west Queensland. This area is known as the Channel Country and has an extensive braided river system which includes the Georgina River, the Diamantina River and Cooper Creek. Excess water from this area generally feeds into the Lake Eyre system which is a vast drainage basin in Australia's arid interior. Flooding of the magnitude visible on the satellite images can cause Lake Eyre to fill up - something which occurs very rarely.

<b>This record was retired 29/03/2022 with approval from S.Oliver as it has been superseded by eCat 146091 Geoscience Australia Landsat Water Observation Statistics Collection 3</b> WOfS-STATS (WO_STATS_2.1.5) is a set of statistical summaries of the water observations contained in WOfS (WO_2.1.5). The layers available are: the count of clear observations;the count of wet observations;the percentage of wet observations over time. This product is Water Observations from Space - Statistics (WO-STATS), a set of statistical summaries of the WOfS product that combines the many years of WOfS observations into summary products that help the understanding of surface water across Australia. WO-STATS consists of the following datasets: Clear Count: how many times an area could be clearly seen (ie. not affected by clouds, shadows or other satellite observation problems), Wet Count: how many times water was detected inobservations that were clear, Water Summary: what percentage of clear observations were detected as wet (ie. the ration of wet to clear as a percentage) As no confidence filtering is applied to this product, it is affected by noise where misclassifications have occurred in the WOfS water classifications, and hence can be difficult to interpret on its own. The confidence layer and filtered summary are contained in the WO-Fil-STATS product, which provide a noise-reduced view of the water summary. WO-STATS is available in multiple forms, depending on the length of time over which the statistics are calculated. At present the following are available: WO-STATS: statistics calculated from the full depth of time series (1986 to present) WO-STATS-ANNUAL: statistics calculated from each calendar year (1986 to present) WO-STATS-NOV-MAR: statistics calculated yearly from November to March (1986 to present) WO-STATS-APR-OCT: statistics calculated yearly from April to October (1986 to present)