Abstract
On 13th January 2011 major flooding occurred throughout most of the Brisbane River catchment, most severely in Toowoomba and the Lockyer Creek catchment (where 23 people drowned), the Bremer River catchment and in Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland. Some 56,200 claims have been received by insurers with payouts totalling $2.55 billion. This paper backgrounds weather and climatic factors implicated in the flooding and the historical flood experience of Brisbane. We examine the time history of water releases from the Wivenhoe dam, which have been accused of aggravating damage downstream. The dam was built in response to even worse flooding in 1974 and now serves as Brisbane’s main water supply. In our analysis, the dam operators made sub-optimal decisions by neglecting forecasts of further rainfall and assuming a ‘no rainfall’ scenario. Questions have also been raised about the availability of insurance cover for riverine flood, and the Queensland government’s decision not to insure its infrastructure. These and other questions have led to Federal and State government inquiries. We argue that insurance is a form of risk transfer for the residual risk following risk management efforts and cannot in itself be a solution for poor land-use planning. With this in mind, we discuss the need for risk-related insurance premiums to encourage flood risk mitigating behaviours by all actors, and for transparency in the availability of flood maps. Examples of good flood risk management to arise from this flood are described.
Highlights
On Thursday 13th January 2011 Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia (27°30' S, 153°1' E) (Figure 1), experienced its second highest flood since the beginning of the 20th Century.Major flooding occurred throughout most of the Brisbane River catchment, most severely in the catchments of the Lockyer Creek and Bremer River where numerous record flood heights were experienced
This paper has examined the causes, impacts and some implications of the January 2011 Brisbane flood
The period December 2010 to January 2011 coincided with a strong La Niña event, often associated with extreme rainfall and widespread flooding in eastern Australia
Summary
On Thursday 13th January 2011 Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia (27°30' S, 153°1' E) (Figure 1), experienced its second highest flood since the beginning of the 20th Century. Submissions to the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry [1], and offers some commentary on the operational management of the Wivenhoe Dam, and insurance and land use planning issues. Commission of Inquiry, and consider insurance and land-use planning issues and their implications for reducing future flooding risks, concerns that, at the time of writing, have yet to be fully examined by the Commission
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