The Murrumbidgee Valley Floodplain Management Plan has been released. Photo: NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure.
Following feedback from and public consultation with local landowners, residents and stakeholders, the State Government has launched the Murrumbidgee Valley Floodplain Management Plan.
The plan was made under the Water Management Act 2000, which provides the framework to minimise future changes to flooding behaviour, improve the environmental health of floodplains and increase public awareness on the effects of flooding.
This comes at a time of severe weather warnings issued by the Bureau of Meteorology, including damaging winds and heavy rainfall across the ACT, South Coast, Southern Tablelands, Snowy Mountains, South West Slopes and Illawarra regions.
The plan serves as a tool to manage rural flood works and facilitates how floodwater passes through the floodplain and their effects on flows and connectivity downstream of Wagga Wagga.
It also sets out the rules for flood work applications within the declared floodplain, including roads, channels, dams or levees that can change the way water moves during a flood.
On top of feedback from the two rounds of public consultations with the community in 2024, the plan also makes use of latest data and hydraulic modelling to make decisions on the types of flood works that can be constructed and where, while balancing the needs of communities, landholders and the environment, as well as protecting cultural and heritage sites.
All this combined helped inform the final plan, including how far the management zones will extend and the rules within them.
Overview map of the Murrumbidgee Floodplain Management Plan. Photo: NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure.
“I thank everyone in the community who shared their local knowledge, experience, expertise and feedback over the last year, which was critical to helping us finalise the plan,” NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water Executive Director of Water Planning Giselle Howard said.
“Our goal is responsible and effective rural floodplain management to help us sustain healthy communities and environments, now and in the future.
“This plan will play a pivotal role in guiding the Murrumbidgee Valley over the next decade.”
The floodplain management plan is unrelated to the Reconnecting River Country Program, which is focused on removing constraints that restrict flexible use of water for the environment.
Constraints outlined in the Reconnecting River Country Program include physical restrictions such as low-lying watercourse crossings, operational restrictions such as river operation rules and policy barriers such as existing legislation.
The floodplain management plan also does not deal with the licensing of floodplain harvesting or other forms of water take, environmental water management, cultural watering plans, access to land for cultural purposes, the modification or removal of existing flood works, flood mitigation or actions to manage localised flooding issues or emergency flood response.
The plan sets rules for the assessment and determination of applications for flood work approvals, establishes management zones and rules on where flood works may be constructed and streamlines the approval process for new and amended flood works.
More information on the Murrumbidgee Valley Floodplain Management Plan can be found here.
