Flood city told to protect its future

paul.weston@news.com.au a Bulletin special report last month, the region’s hot spot for future flash flooding.

Dr David Rissik, the deputy director of the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, looked at the city’s future weather challenges during a panel discussion yesterday as part of the Gold Coast Waterways 2017 and Beyond conference.

Dr Rissik showed delegates the Coastal Risk Australia map which details the impact on suburbs from the 1m sea level increase expected by 2100.

“What’s interesting is when you look at the canal estates they generally seem OK because a lot of them are one metre and two metres above groundwater level,” Dr Rissik said.

“But if you then look at the northern (suburbs), you will see there’s more flooding at that level. The concern is what happens when it rains and you have the high tide at the same time?”

Dr Rissik said there was enough time to find solutions but work needed to start now. Softer options like creating mangroves to protect waterways could work in the shorter term but longer-term solutions were needed like building hard structures on river banks.

The mapping shows the Carrara floodplain, the Tallebudgera Valley, the Currumbin Valley and south to the border, including property west of Kingscliff to Murwillumbah, as other at-risk areas.

Retired senior forecaster Jeff Callaghan said the Coast had entered a three-decade-long cycle of threatening cyclones.

He said the city had witnessed a drought period from 1977 to 2002 similar to patterns in the previous century of active and inactive cyclonic weather.

His belief is Cyclone Debbie will not be typical of future weather systems.

“We didn’t get any big seas or storm surges. We got phenomenal rain, very consistent, especially in the Tweed.”