State Planning Policy: incorporating climate change into flood estimates

Introduction

Queensland is currently experiencing one of the wettest summers on record which, at the time of writing, shows no sign of relenting as the Bureau of Meteorology continues to issue flood warnings for heavy rain and flash flooding over much of northern and eastern Queensland.¹

It is timely that the State government have sought to update State Planning Policy 1/03: Mitigating the Adverse Impacts of Flood, Bushfire and Landslide (the policy) and provide practical guidance to Local Governments on how to incorporate the impacts of climate change in planning policies.

Inland Flooding Study

The State Office of Climate Change and Department of Infrastructure and Planning have partnered with the Local Government Association of Queensland on the Inland Flooding Study to improve Queensland's resilience to extreme flood events due to climate change.