2019 has seen record flooding In Queensland, Australia. Torrential rain has saturated Townsville, the largest coastal city in northeast Queensland, with rainfall totals hitting record highs and hundreds of residents having been evacuated from their homes. What is now being referred to as “the big wet” first hit in October 2018 with many towns reporting well above average rainfall. Tewantin had 333.2mm, more than three times their average (91.4mm) and Gympie had 211.1mm nearly double their average of 121.8mm (65.7mm).With flooding a major headline around Australia, we spoke to Environmental Consultant and internationally regarded Flood Mitigation Expert Steven Molino about the online launch of Floodplain Manager, a monthly newsletter he edits for Floodplain Managers.Steven Molino has been in the Environmental Consulting business for over 30 years, and Floodplain Management is his specialty. He first became involved in floodplain management way back in 1991 when I was hired to do an environmental impact assessment before the Warragamba Dam upgrade. “Warragamba is Sydney’s main water supply dam, so it is crucial to make sure that it won’t fail in the event of an extreme flood.” While doing the impact assessment on Warragamba Dam, Steven realised that the environmental challenges were complex and varied and it became apparent that simply preventing the dam from failing would not be enough to prevent significant flood impacts on the more than 75,000 people who were living in the Hawkesbury Nepean Valley at the time. This initial project proved formative, and over the years Steven has been involved in some of the most complex floodplain management problems in Australia, including:
Finding ways to estimate the impact of floods.
Designing and putting in place flood warning systems in floodplains.
Analysing the evacuation capabilities of different localities within zones that are prone to flooding.
Creating emergency response plans in case of floods and
Educating communities on how to react when floods are imminent, or when they are caught up and are unable to evacuate.
Because of the rare expertise involved in his field, Steven is in high demand at both national and international forums on floodplain management and it was at one of these forums that he first came up with the idea for the Floodplain Manager newsletter. “After attending several conferences, I was surprised at how little floodplain management professionals from around Australia knew about what was happening outside of their own State, let alone around the world”. He also realized that the lack of information sharing within the profession came at a high cost to the taxpayer. “There was also evidence that scarce funding for flood mitigation initiatives was being used to develop apparently innovative flood mitigation ideas in one state when the same or similar innovations had already been developed and tested elsewhere". He realized that if someone took the time to curate and condense information about recent developments in floodplain management, it would be of a great benefit to everyone within the profession. Floodplain Manager is a newsletter that served the specific goal of informing professionals in Floodplain Management about what their counterparts across Australia and the world are doing so that it is easier for them to share information and to collaborate with each other to solve emerging floodplain management issues. In 2005, the first issue of the Floodplain Manager was published. It was a simple 8-page A4 publication which was distributed to roughly 100 subscribers. The first electronic version of Floodplain Manager was emailed to about 800 subscribers, not just in Australia, but also across Europe, North America, and Asia. In January 2019, the newsletter entered the next phase of its evolution, new editions of the Floodplain Manager will be posted on the Molino Stewart website every month. To subscribe to Floodplain Manager visit the Molino Stewart website.Steven Molino is the current editor of Floodplain Manager and the Managing Director of Molino Stewart.
