海角社区

Watershed Wisdom: Navigating Flood and Coastal Planning

Friday 1.30pm-2.30pm

• David Brown
• Julie Brook M海角社区 and Rosalyn Acworth
• Phillipa Galligan

David Brown
Future-Proofing Cities Through Climate-Conscious Planning: Seqwater’s East Bank Flood Resilience Program

With the escalating impacts of climate change, resilient water supply infrastructure is critical to maintain water security for our cities. As part of Seqwater’s East Bank Flood Resilience Program (EBFRP), we explore a multi-faceted strategy combining managed retreat, resilience-based infrastructure upgrades and recovery planning that safeguards the regions water supply against the impacts of climate change, while honouring the sites exceptional heritage.

Originally constructed in 1892 to supply water to Brisbane, the East Bank Pumping Station site in Mount Crosby has undergone major transformations in its history from steam power to electrification. The site continues to serve as a critical component of the South East Queensland (SEQ) Water Grid, supplying approximately two-thirds of the drinking water supply to Brisbane and Ipswich.

The site is also susceptible to inundation in extreme flood events which may compromise water security. The EBFRP spans 5 years and encompasses a multifaceted approach to mitigate flood risks, while maintaining the operational continuity of this critical asset.

1. Infrastructure Upgrades:
   • The EBFRP Masterplan addresses the vulnerability of essential infrastructure within the Mt Crosby precinct, emphasising flood mitigation and asset renewal. Buildings requiring upgrades or relocation are identified, ensuring their resilience against floods.
2. Cultural Heritage and Community Engagement:
   • The EBFRP is not merely about engineering solutions; it celebrates the rich cultural heritage of the site. By protecting heritage features and implementing sympathetic design principles, we honour the past while preparing for the future.
   • Community engagement played a pivotal role. A draft Masterplan was released for consultation, inviting locals to contribute their insights. A community open day at the Pump Station fostered dialogue and collaboration.
3. Key Components:
   • Vehicle Bridge: A new vehicle bridge spanning the Brisbane River enhances connectivity and emergency response while retaining key heritage features of the site. The existing weir bridge will be transformed into a pedestrian and bike pathway complemented by pedestrian connections and interpretative heritage signage.
   • Electrical Substation: A new sympathetically designed substation, strategically located on higher ground, will power the Pump Station.
   • Community Enhancements: Renovation works of the heritage listed worker’s accommodation, improvements to the local community hall, and the creation of a new community park underscore the program’s community-based approach.
   • Environmental Outcomes: Waterway rehabilitation and planting deliver on the program’s environmental stewardship.

Climate Conscious Planning: The EBFRP exemplifies climate-conscious planning coordinated through a Masterplan process. The EBFRP weaves together engineering prowess, community engagement, and cultural reverence to future-proof our cities. As we navigate an uncertain climate future, this program serves as a model for future infrastructure, demonstrating that proactive planning can balance progress with preservation.

Seqwater’s East Bank Flood Resilience Program

Rosalyn Acworth and Julie Brook R海角社区
Navigating the Journey – CHAS to Planning Scheme

The State Planning Policy provides us with a statutory framework for integrating natural hazards into a planning scheme, of which Coastal hazards are one. QCoast 2100 has provided a framework for the identification of coastal hazard risk and the development of a public facing coastal strategy for adoption by local governments. This process has been widely funded and taken up by LGAs through the great work of DES and LGAQ.

Coastal hazards include Sea Level Rise, Open Coast and Estuarine Erosion and Storm Tide Inundation. Each hazard has its own characteristics, impacts and strategies over timeframes difficult to grasp – to 2100. The QCoast program has a focus on public assets but serves also as the evidence base needed to integrate a locally relevant hazard identification process into a planning instrument to ensure future development and existing communities can address changing circumstances and create a settlement pattern and future vision that aligns with expected hazard behaviours.

Our coast lines are abundantly populated, they are integral to our economy, lifestyle, health and wellbeing. They are iconic and coveted and fundamental to the Queensland Sunshine state culture. Balancing the connection of our communities to the coast and its dynamic nature brings both challenges and opportunities, that statutory frameworks cannot fully appreciate.

A first principles planning approach to managing coastal adaptation and a place-focussed methodology, can prove to illuminate the pathways to balancing a future connected to the coast with communities. In addition, developing pathways that community and practitioners can follow from the public facing document into the planning scheme translates the higher level strategic document to the practical implementation more clearly; stepping out the incremental change affected and desired, by place, by timeframe and by hazard. Translation of the values to regulation involves incremental step change to enable support from stakeholders including elected members. There is a journey from current climate scenarios and future settlement pattern implications that warrants innovative and interpretive approaches.

Lessons along the Journey (Fraser Coast Regional Council):

The CHAS process is long and it’s technical, however it is also very worthwhile, and the Fraser Coast experience has been one of significant capacity building for our staff and many lessons learned.

The primary observation is that in keeping with a place-based approach the CHAS development and planning scheme integration should be more about the people who live in those places, the connections to the coast and the ways it is used in their lives. A greater focus on bringing the community with and capacity building all stakeholders makes the first principles approach easier for all to understand.

The concepts of change for a dynamic coastline are hard for residents to understand and providing pathways that are people and place sensitive can alleviate community angst.

The role the coastline plays in our economy, health and wellbeing cannot be underestimated, and for this reason, the CHAS outcomes and integration must look at communities holistically. Providing a framework that shows the interconnected nature of the coast to our societal systems can tell a more complete the story of impacts and solutions.

Phillipa Galligan
Planning for our change

According to the Climate Council projections 64% of Queensland’s Local Government Areas will have 10% or more of their properties facing an ‘effectively unaffordable’ insurance cost by 2100. The role of a planner in Queensland is to seek to achieve the purpose of the legislation we are accountable too (the Planning Act 2016), by establishing an efficient, effective, transparent, integrated, coordinated and accountable system of land use planning, development assessment and related matters that facilitate the achievement of ecological sustainability. But are we delivering an accountable and robust planning framework that recognises and sustainably adapts to the changes our landscapes and communities are seeing as their new norm and over the long term? This presentation will seek to unpack our role in adapting to our change and reflect on how decision-making guides our response to changes in our environment.

The presentation will look at the past and present legislation in place that recognise the importance of planning profession in seeking to achieve Ecological Sustainable Development and look at the planning framework from where it’s come from to now and some key matters that we should consider if we want to help our communities adapt to climate change including both scheme drafting and development assessment.