Rainfall changes: overlooked development opportunities

In 2016, the Bureau of Meteorology published an update to rainfall data for flood modelling—the first for 30 years.

In most areas, rainfall intensities went up. But for short duration (under 3 hours) coastal storms, intensities went down.

Because many council flood studies are older than 2017, this anomally has created some hidden opportunities.

There are a lot of areas along the coast, especially those with steep catchments, where outdated council flood studies are showing flooding on development sites that may not be flooded at all. Or, more common, flood depths and extents are smaller than they previously were.

Remodelling to reduce the flood impact can reveal significant opportunities.

- increase the number of lots available by shrinking the flood extent

- additional floors available by reducing the flood depth and minimum floor level

- reduce the need for costly suspended floors