Putting a 10-year flood modeling plan in place for a growing region

Maroochydore West Master Drainage Plan

The next decade will see a surge in the number of people living and working in the Maroochydore West area of the Sunshine Coast region. Understanding how floodwater behaves in and around a catchment where people and infrastructure are located is a critical part of the planning process. Sunshine Coast City Council needed to model stormwater scenarios as part of their infrastructure plan for the area and reached out to our local professionals to help.

We conducted 1D and 2D hydraulic modeling to demonstrate overland and channel flows as well as predict flooding within the study area. To fully understand the study area during times of extreme rainfall events, we used the Queensland Urban Drainage Manual, TUFLOW, and multiple scenarios from existing stormwater network and other overflow capture tools.

The resulting Master Drainage Plan will be an important part of the Local Government Infrastructure Plan for the next 10 years. The illustrative maps, in particular, show predicted flood speed, depth, and hazard categories to safely guide development in the Maroochydore West study corridor.