WG FMS Working Draft Section 1 V5
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WEST GIPPSLAND CATCHMENT MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY Draft West Gippsland Floodplain Management Strategy CONTENTS ACRONYMS ..................................................................................................................................... 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................................. 5 1. PART 1 – INTRODUCTION AND STRATEGIC CONTEXT........................................................ 7 1.1 The Victorian Floodplain Management Strategy ................................................................. 7 1.2 Aligning the Victorian and national approaches to managing flood risk ............................... 8 1.3 Purpose and scope of the West Gippsland Floodplain Management Strategy .................... 9 1.4 Relationship to other strategies and plans .......................................................................... 9 1.5 Review of the previous regional strategy .......................................................................... 11 1.6 The West Gippsland region .............................................................................................. 11 1.7 The cultural significance of floodplains for Traditional Owners .......................................... 12 1.7.1 Gunaikurnai .................................................................................................................... 13 1.7.2 Bunurong ........................................................................................................................ 13 1.7.3 Boon Wurrung ................................................................................................................. 15 1.7.4 Wurundjeri ...................................................................................................................... 15 2. PART 2 – ASSESSMENT OF REGIONAL FLOODING ........................................................... 16 2.1 Recorded flooding in the region ........................................................................................ 16 2.2 Climate change ................................................................................................................. 21 2.3 Integrated catchment management .................................................................................. 23 2.4 Regional risk assessment ................................................................................................. 25 2.5 Important regional and community infrastructure .............................................................. 27 2.6 Stormwater management .................................................................................................. 28 2.7 Rural drainage .................................................................................................................. 28 2.8 Existing flood risk treatments ............................................................................................ 29 2.8.1 Planning Scheme controls ......................................................................................... 29 2.8.2 Structural flood mitigation infrastructure ..................................................................... 32 2.8.3 Total Flood Warning System services ........................................................................ 34 2.8.4 Municipal Flood Emergency Plans ............................................................................. 36 2.9 Summary of flood risk in West Gippsland ......................................................................... 37 2.9.1 Bass Coast Shire ....................................................................................................... 38 2.9.2 Baw Baw Shire .......................................................................................................... 41 2.9.3 Latrobe City ............................................................................................................... 45 2.9.4 South Gippsland Shire ............................................................................................... 48 2.9.5 Wellington Shire ........................................................................................................ 52 2.9.6 East Gippsland Shire ................................................................................................. 59 3. PART 3 – THE STRATEGY ..................................................................................................... 61 2 3.1 Vision and objectives for floodplain management in the region ......................................... 61 3.2 Stakeholder engagement .................................................................................................. 68 3.3 Determining regional priorities .......................................................................................... 69 3.4 Strategy implementation ................................................................................................... 70 3.5 Other flooding issues ........................................................................................................ 71 3.6 Priority flood mitigation actions ......................................................................................... 72 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................... 75 3 ACRONYMS AEP Annual Exceedance Probability ARI Average Recurrence Interval CMA Catchment Management Authority EGCMA East Gippsland Catchment Management Authority LGA Local Government Authority MFEP Municipal Flood Emergency Plan MEMPC Municipal Emergency Management Planning Committee PSA Planning Scheme Amendment RCS Regional Catchment Strategy TFWS Total Flood Warning System VFD Victorian Flood Database VFMS Victorian Floodplain Management Strategy VICSES Victorian State Emergency Service VPP Victorian Planning Provisions WGCMA West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority (WGCMA) has been working collaboratively with local communities, Traditional Owners, councils, the Victorian State Emergency Service (VICSES) and other regional agencies to prepare the draft West Gippsland Floodplain Management Strategy (‘the Strategy’) as an outcome of the 2016 Victorian Floodplain Management Strategy (VFMS). The Strategy: • Identifies those parts of the region with significant flood risk; • Identifies possible actions to mitigate those risks; and • Establishes a list of priority actions to be implemented over the duration of the Strategy. The possible mitigation actions identified in this draft Strategy will be revised based on feedback from a period of public exhibition. The revised actions will then be further prioritised into an initial three-year Regional Work Program to commence implementation of the actions. The work program will be reviewed each year and updated as a rolling three year work program, with two subsequent work programs to be developed over the term of the Strategy. The vision for the strategy is that West Gippsland communities are aware of flooding and are actively taking measures to manage their flood risks to minimise the consequences to life, property, community wellbeing, the economy and the environment. The strategy seeks to: • Build a flood resilient community – through effective sharing of current information about flood behaviour; • Reduce existing flood risks – through emergency management, flood mitigation infrastructure works and activities, and risk management; • Avoid future flood risks – through effective land use planning and building controls that account for the impacts of climate change; and • Manage residual flood risks – through flood insurance, provision of flood risk information, integrated flood emergency management and incident control. Flooding is a natural hazard in West Gippsland that can severely disrupt communities by causing injury, loss of life, property damage, personal hardship, and disruptions to regional economies. The location, the scale of effects and the probability of occurrence can be estimated with reasonable accuracy for a range of floods. Understanding flood behaviour enables us to assess the likely costs of flooding and the benefits of different options for managing the community’s exposure to flood risk. The development of this Strategy has involved an assessment of flood risks across the region, resulting in a list of locations with significant flood risk, relative to other locations across Victoria. Options for mitigating these flood risks were then investigated to produce a list of actions that the responsible agencies consider to be feasible over the term of the Strategy, subject to funding and further investigation. The flood mitigation actions proposed can be grouped into four categories. 5 1. Land use planning relates to tools such as Planning Schemes and building regulations, which manage development in flood-prone areas to reduce risk to life and property associated with new development. An example action is updating Planning Schemes to reflect current flood mapping. 2. Flood mitigation infrastructure involves the construction and management of physical works designed to reduce the impacts of flooding, such as levees, floodways and retarding basins. Example actions include managing waterways, developing retarding basins and developing or managing levees. 3. Flood warning involves community education and awareness in support of flood preparedness to reduce existing flood risks.