How do design safely around flooding - Episode 1

Projects in flood zones: why so problematic?

Why not simply filly and raise it above the flood?

The most difficult problems to solve on flood affected sites are not protecting a building from flooding, rather not making flooding worse for others.

The conventional solution is to suspend everything over the water. But this is not always possible and increasingly—for example in Parramatta—not permitted.

Instead, other techniques such as offset storage (excavating a hole) can be used.

Or a demolished obstruction can be netted off against.

The central idea is that there is a number of options to offset or net off flood impacts, especially if there is plenty of space between the building and the downstream boundary.

The precise impacts and results are modelled using software in an iterative process.

• Close of filled subfloors obstruct the flow

• Suspended floors with open subfloors: flow characteristics are unchanged by the building