Consultation open on Flooding Hazard Mapping Update Code Amendment
Published Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Public consultation is now open on the Flooding Hazards Mapping Update Code Amendment – the first step in a wider project to introduce new and updated flood hazard mapping into SA’s Planning and Design Code (the Code).
It is important for the Code to correctly identify areas likely to flood in order to minimise potential impacts to people, property, infrastructure, and the natural environment.
The Code’s planning policies aim to restrict new development in high-risk flood areas and encourage suitable design responses in lower risk areas. These policies are applied in the Code via ‘overlays’.
The Flooding Hazards Mapping Update Code Amendment is focused exclusively on the ‘Hazards (Flooding – Evidence Required) Overlay’ in the Code.
This Code Amendment proposes to:
- reduce the extent of Hazards (Flooding - Evidence Required) Overlay in 12 local government areas and several Outback Areas where more recent flood hazard mapping has demonstrated that there is minimal risk of flooding; and
- apply the Hazards (Flooding - Evidence Required) Overlay to a portion of the Port Adelaide Enfield Council area, as a precaution, where the level of flood hazard has not yet been determined and until new flood hazard mapping can be implemented in future stages of the wider project.
Public consultation will be open for 8 weeks from 22 February to 21 April 2023.
This Code Amendment is the first step in a three-stage Flood Hazard Mapping and Assessment Project being undertaken to deliver more consistent and contemporary mapping of riverine and flash flood hazards across South Australia.
The Project will involve using new technology to deliver updated flood studies and modelling which will cover a range of flood events and consider the impact of both climate change and future development to 2050. The final stage of the project, which is expected to go on public consultation later this year, will involve the introduction of new flood mapping across the entire State.
