Brisbane Catchment
South East Queensland consists of 14 major river catchments and sub-catchments. The Brisbane River catchment has an area of almost 14,000km2 making it the largest catchment in the area. The Brisbane River is also the longest river in south east Queensland at 309km. The catchment includes several small dams and two large dams; Somerset and Wivenhoe. The Wivenhoe aimed to prevent future flooding and was completed in 1984. Figure 1 shows the Brisbane River catchment including the associated rivers and creeks that feed into the river.
Flooding
January 2011, South East Queensland experienced two major floods that had a significant impact on many communities throughout coastal Queensland. January 10th the city of Toowoomba and downstream in the Lockyer Valley were flooded. On 13 January 2011, the Brisbane River experienced the 2nd highest flood since the beginning of the 20th century (Honert & McAneney 2011, pp. 1150).
Flooding is a natural event that occurs when there is an overflow of a large amount of water beyond its normal limits. There are five separate physical phenomena that cause flooding: (ICA 2011, pg. 7)
1. Excessive rainfall (overland flow and waterflow)
2. The operation or failure of water storages and flood protection levees (dam release and dam break/levee break floods)
3. Elevated coastal water levels (storm surge floods)
4. Undersea earthquakes (tsunamis)
5. Geomorphological events (the flood accompanying the collapse of landslip and glacier lakes)
In Australia, rainfall, dam-related and maritime are the most common groups of floods.
Some examples of the recent floods are the Toowoomba/Lockyer Valley and the Brisbane River. The Toowoomba/Lockyer Valley was classified as a flas...
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..., 2013. "Brisbane City Council’s Land-use Planning Response to the January 2011 Brisbane River Flood." Australian Government. Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. http://www.regional.gov.au/local/awards/leading/entrydetails.aspx?entry=LA001&entryYear=2012
Queensland Government. 2013. "Brisbane River Catchment Flood Study." – Department of Natural Resources and Mines. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. http://www.dnrm.qld.gov.au/water/brisbane-river-catchment-flood-study
Queensland Reconstruction Authority, 2011. “Planning for Stronger, More Resilient Floodplains: Part 1- Interim Measures to Support Floodplain Management in Existing Planning Schemes.”
http://www.qldreconstruction.org.au/u/lib/cms2/resilient-floodplains-part1-full.pdf
Brisbane City Council. “Flood Awareness Map”. http://floodinformation.brisbane.qld.gov.au/fio/
As can be seen from the map (Figure 5), the Maribyrnong Rivers begins when the two major tributaries- Deep Creek and Jackson’s creek merge together, and then the river go through the Brimbank Park, downstream flows through suburban Melbourne before joining the Yarra River estuary on its way out to Port Phillip Bay. Therefore, because of the hydrology, there is erosion can be found in the Site 2 area.
Based on the events that lead to the devastating floods in Queensland and the eventual case that was brought against the engineers of the dam, there have been views from both sides of the divide as to whether or not the actions taken by the engineers were actually ethical or otherwise. We have explored this avenue and have found that both sides of the divide have good reasons to justify their actions. Firstly, we shall explore the avenue that the engineers decisions were appropriate and ethical. It can be said that the engineers did employ act utilitarianism in their decisions and actions, hence causing these decisions to be ethically correct. Act utilitarianism is essentially doing the right thing, which would benefit the majority of people, based on the situation that is currently taking place. One of the reasons that explains why the actions taken could be considered as ethically fine, was that if the dam was not opened, there would have been no other way to solve the increasing water levels in the dam. If no action was taken, there could have been seriously devastating effects, like the dam wall eroding due to water spilling over the dam wall, thus weakening the structure, or a loss of water flow control. Professor Hubert Chanson, a professor in hydraulic engineering in the University of Queensland, mentioned that the Wivenhoe Dam was actually designed as an embankment dam, hence it should not be overtopped, that is water should not be allowed to flow over the limits of the dam (Andersen 2011). Despite there being a secondary spillway, however it is recommended that spillway is not put to use, as the use of that spillway would mean that there would be a surge of water leaving the dam, and a loss of control of the water flow, w...
Most of the destructions from the events of August 29th 2005, when Katrina Hit the City Of New Orleans, were not only caused by the storm itself; but also, by failure of the engineering of the levee system protecting the entire infrastructure of the city. The years of poor decision making and avoidance of the levee system led to one of the most catastrophic events in the history of the United States. Throughout our research, we have identified three key players in charge of the levee system design, construction and maintenance. These three organizations are the Unites States Corps of Engineers, the New Orleans Levee District and the Louisiana Department of Transportation. The consequences of the hurricane showed the organizations negligence in the design, construction and maintenance of the protective walls. Later independent sresearch showed that more than 50 levees and food walls failed during the passage of the hurricane. This failure caused the flooding of most of New Orleans and all of ST. Bernard Parish. The Unites States Corps of Engineers had been in charge of the of the levee system and flood walls construction since the 1936 flood act. According to the law, the Louisiana Department of Transportation is in charge to inspect the overall design and engineering practices implemented in the construction of the system. Once the levee systems were finished, they were handed over to the New Orleans Levee District for regular maintenance and periodically inspections. The uncoordinated actions of these three agencies resulted in the complete failure of a system that was supposed to protect the people of New Orleans. The evidence is clear that this catastrophic event did not happened by chance. The uncoordinated response of these...
Simonovic, S., Carson, R., W., 2003. Flooding in the Red River Basin – Lessons from Post Flood Activities. Natural Hazards 28(1), 345-365.
The Johnstown Flood Stained the history of the United States. Over 2000 victims died and even more injured. The flood has been blamed on many people since it happened. One group individually brought about the flood. The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club made selfish changes threatening the effectiveness toward holding back a water overflow. The renovation made to the dam brought about the destruction killing many people and causing millions of dollars in damages.
The Cumberland and Cumberland River basin experienced a 36 hour rainfall that produced flooding in Nashville and its greater area (After Action Report, II). The 2010 two day storm was believed to be greater than a 100 year event. Storm activity began on May 1st and 2nd which created a large scale flash flood along the Cumberland and Lower Tennessee rivers, and within its tributaries. Historically the Cumberland River basin has received great amounts of precipitation and has experienced extreme rainfall before, making it prone to severe flooding (After Action Report, I). Some of the historic floods that have affected the Cumberland River are the December 1926, January 1927, January 1937 and March 1975 floods, which produced a maximum flood height in much of the river. Before the May 2010 flood, the Cumberland River reached a flood stage of 45.26 feet during the May 1987 flood which was a result of a series of flooding events that took place during an extensive amount of time (After Action Report, 4). The 2010 flood which affected much of Nashville acted more like a flash flood, which produced record breaking rainfall for much of the area. According to the Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (QPF) on April 30th rainfall totaled 7.8 inches across central Tennessee. The report also states that there was a widespread of rainfall equaling to 2 to 6 inch in total, over southeastern US stretching to Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Rainfall for parts of western Tennessee and Kentucky totaled 3 to 4 inches with a high of 4.65 inches (After Action Report, III). As it is stated by the report areas around Nashville received more than 13 inches of rain in a span of 36 hours, which doubled the record set by the September 1979 flood event. At th...
Warragamba Dam is vital for Sydney’s water supply as it supplies the highest quality of raw water available. The Sydney Catchment Authority ensures this and it is their goal to make sure that water quality continues to meet the Australian Drinking
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The Murrumbidgee River is the 3rd longest river in Australia and in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), after the Murray and Darling rivers. The area of catchment is 8% of the total area of the MDB Basin and provides almost 16% of inflow for the Basin (Burrell, 2017). In Murrumbidgee regulated river, water source is defined as the water between the banks of all rivers, from the upper limit of Burrinjuck Dam water storage (being the Taemas Bridge crossing) and Blowering Dam water storage (being the dam wall and spillway for Jounama Pondage), downstream to the junction of the Murrumbidgee River and the Murray River
Wivenhoe dam was built on the Brisbane river in 1984. The dam was built so it can catch excess water from the lakes,river and stream etc. It is built with concrete across a river valley to block the river flow. The dam supply's a great water supply for south-east Queensland.
Craig E.Colten’s book centers on a familiar problem that New Orleans city constantly faces, the flooding. In particular, the book focuses on the genesis of the flooding danger. In reference to Colten’s book, this essay will attack the statement “The environmental elements, as opposed to human actions, fully account for New Orleans’ problem with water”. The rationale of opening up unusable land by draining waters and construction of levees to contain Mississippi River water led to serious flooding during heavy downpour. After raising the levee systems to the desired levels in 1920s, the issues of drainage become apparent and the heavy rainfalls became the main cause of the wave of flooding in New Orleans. The thunderstorms –spawned rain replaced Mississippi River as the greatest threat. The water problem in New Orleans emanated from the human behavior of destroying natural conditions in New Orleans through natural environment modification to accommodate residential and commercial housing. From the foundation, New Orleans faced flooding threat, first from the Mississippi River and then downpour floods. Colten (2005) maintain that human wrested New Orleans site from nature resulting in continual struggle with water and floods.
The following is a report on Australian drought situation. It will identity the definition of the drought, describe the causes of drought, represent impact of drought in Queensland and introduce management to help farmers cope with future drought occurrences.
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Access requirements for a levee must be considered during the design phase of a flood control project.