Mooloolah River Flood Study

Planning for community growth and urban development requires an understanding the natural environment. The Sunshine Coast Council sought the knowledge of our Water Resources team to develop a flood assessment and stormwater management plan of the vast Mooloolah River catchment area in the Sunshine Coast region.

Covering an area of more than 215 square kilometres (83 square miles), our team needed to use different modeling techniques to capture information, defining flood levels, tailwater conditions, and outlet configurations. We used four calibration events for URBS and TUFLOW modelling and Duration Independent Storm (DIS) data to define the potential flood levels in the catchment area. Additionally, we used data from Australian Rainfall & Runoff (ARR) to conduct the sensitivity analysis. At the Mooloolah Gauge, we looked at a revised flood frequency and the impacts downstream.

The resulting flood study gives the Council an informative source to help define flood levels throughout the catchment area. They adopted the plan as part of their land development and emergency systems planning, which includes potential impacts of climate change on this coastal region.