A Federal and State Government initiative will keep Queenslanders safer and more flood resilient. This follows an $18 million increase in the successful and long-standing Flood Risk Management Program (FRMP).
This funding boost through the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) will support initiatives that help deliver a comprehensive approach to flood management, integrating forecasting, infrastructure, community involvement and ongoing evaluation.
Federal Minister for Emergency Management, Jenny McAllister, said, “The Federal and Queensland State Governments are supporting local governments to take evidence-based approaches to better protect the community and reduce the impacts of the next big flood.
“It’s great to see some of our previous investment going towards ground-breaking initiatives that will equip councils with crucial data to enhance understanding of flood risk management.”
Funding is available for 39 eligible councils to improve community resilience to future flooding events. This money will be dedicated to funding flood studies, risk assessments, management strategies and intelligence systems, all of which are tailored to the unique local needs of regions and communities.
Queensland Government departments will share a further $4.2 million for similar projects. These improvements include better flood forecasting and warning systems, evacuation planning and community awareness initiatives.
Queensland’s Department of Resources will also receive a funding boost of an additional $6 million to build on data capture work to better understand potential flood risks of the future, taking this total investment to $12.4 million.
Queensland Disaster Recovery Minister, Nikki Boyd, said that since 2011, Queenslanders have experienced more than 80 floods across the state.
“This is a comprehensive and integrated approach to risk, flood intelligence, resilience and recovery because the public safety of Queenslanders is always paramount.”
The $18 million builds on the $31 million announced in 2022 for projects to address medium- and long-term flood recovery and resilience needs across the state.
This brings the total value of the FRMP to $49 million. The program was established in response to the significant events of the 2021-22 disaster season, including flooding in the southeast and across central, southern, and western areas and ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth.
Previous projects delivered under the FRMP, which the Queensland Reconstruction Authority administers, include river, creek and overland flood studies, flood risk assessments and management strategies and community education materials.
For example, the FRMP is supporting an initiative to safeguard Queensland communities across 26 local councils from future flood events by capturing light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data to develop comprehensive datasets and models over an area larger than Tasmania.
Additional FRMP funding will support these councils in undertaking further evidence-based flood risk management activities based on the 3D maps and models generated by the technology.
Further, more councils will be able to apply for the necessary LiDAR data for their local government areas, improving flood preparedness and management and understanding of flood risk.
The $18 million in redirected funding includes allocating project costs and administration.
More information on Queensland’s Flood Risk Management Program can be found at www.qra.qld.gov.au.
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