Planning for a Flood Resilient Townsville
The Townsville City Plan is designed to support building and land use decisions that keep people safe, protect property, improve resilience and make Townsville a great place to live.
Council is currently working on a package of updates to our Townsville City Plan (also referred to as ‘the planning scheme’) based on the latest flood modelling information and the Queensland standard risk-based approach to flood-related decision making.
You can visit the Townsville City Council website to see the latest information on flood mapping, modelling and studies, and for more on how a risk-based planning approach works.
To help us make the best decisions for future planning in Townsville, we’re inviting public feedback on some options that could impact future land use and construction in our city.
Final proposals addressing these issues will form part of a formal amendment package that we expect to bring forward for consultation in 2025.
Understanding flood risk
The risk of flooding and its impacts on people and property are major considerations for everyone in Townsville. We’ve always experienced flooding – our city sits on a floodplain – and we now also need to consider the impact of climate change when making decisions about future development. Our planning scheme prioritises decisions that protect people and property from flooding.
Taking a risk-based approach to flooding means that we now consider:
- Flood hazard – how likely a flood is in a specific area, and what a flooding event would be like, including how deep and fast-moving water might be
- Flood consequence – what effect the flood would have on people and property in an area, how vulnerable they would be and how this could impact the wider community.
Taken together, these hazard and risk factors combine to give us a risk rating for all areas in Townsville, from very low risk (FR1) to very high risk (FR5). This will replace our previous approach, which was based solely on hazard. You can see how the new risk maps differ from the current hazard maps on the Townsville City Council website.
Identifying areas for your feedback
In updating the Townsville City Plan to increase resilience, our planners will be proposing many changes that deliver a clear improvement in safety or flood resilience. These will be shared for consultation in our full amendment package next year.
Our planners have also identified some areas where potential changes could deliver some improvements in resilience but would limit or otherwise impact future building options. In these cases, it’s important to strike a balance between enabling people to develop and build appropriately, while still providing protection for the community. These are the areas where we would welcome your views.
Some additional background to help you take part in this consultation
Our consultation options all refer to flood risk (rather than just flood hazard). Sometimes the options will be between maintaining the current approach and introducing a new, higher standard for greater resilience. Other options may ask you to choose between different standards for different risk levels.
It’s important to remember that when setting building standards and other Planning requirements there are two main types of impact from building in flood areas:
On-site Impacts - risk to people within a property (such as inside a house) when flooding occurs and the risk to that building or property.
Off-site Impacts - risk to surrounding people and buildings.
During a flood, a new structure or other building work needs to be safe for the people inside or using it, safe itself from the impact of flooding, and not having an unreasonable negative impact on neighbouring people or property.
Townsville has many beautiful homes that have withstood floods, extreme weather events and more during the last 100 years. Some homes being built today may still be there in the next century, so we have to ensure that they are protected against future flood risk.
In addition to the more informed risk-based approach and new risk mapping, we also have updated flood depth modelling, based on the latest scientific research, many years of observed flood data and incorporating the impacts of future climate change. This gives us the opportunity to make different decisions about how planning could better protect people and property.
In each question, you can choose only one option. You will then have an opportunity to explain why you have chosen that option, if you wish to.
In all cases, proposed changes only refer to future building or land use decisions – anything that is already built or approved will not be impacted by any amendments proposed or accepted.
Some useful terms
Defined flood level – is the level that floodwaters are expected to reach during the defined flood event. We use the defined flood level to determine appropriate floor heights for most new development. In Townsville, this is the 1% AEP flooding event (sometimes referred to as a 1-in-100-year event) and it is the level shown in Townsville’s flood depth mapping.
Defined flood area – this is any land or property that is shown as experiencing any level of flooding during a 1% AEP flooding event, as shown in Townsville’s flood depth mapping.
Dwellings - A building or part of a building used or capable of being used as a self-contained residence that must include the following:
- food preparation facilities
- a bath or shower
- a toilet and wash basin
- clothes washing facilities.
This term includes outbuildings, structures and works normally associated with a dwelling.
Habitable rooms –a room used for normal domestic activities, and includes a:
- bedroom
- living room
- lounge room
- music room
- television room
- kitchen
- dining room
- sewing room
- study, playroom
- family room
- home theatre
- sunroom.
Non-habitable rooms - includes a:
- bathroom
- laundry
- water closet
- pantry
- walk-in wardrobe
- corridor
- hallway
- lobby
- photographic darkroom
- clothes-drying room
- other spaces of a specialised nature occupied neither frequently nor for extended periods.
