Floodplain Management Australia is delighted to announce the 2024 winners of the Harold Sternbeck Medal and YFM Outstanding Presenter Award from the 2024 FMA National Conference in Brisbane.

The Harold Sternbeck Medal competition for best presentation overall at the FMA Annual Conference has been an FMA Conference tradition for many years. In 2021, in addition to the Harold Sternbeck Medal, we introduced the Young Floodplain Manager (YFM) Outstanding Presenter Award.

The winner of the 2024 Harold Sternbeck Medal is:

• Willow Forsyth, Willow Forsyth Pty Ltd — ‘Know your flood risk' simple advice for a profoundly misunderstood learning context.

The winner of the 2024 YFM Outstanding Presenter Award is:

• Alana Mosely, City of Moreton Bay (QLD) — The problem with parks.

Congratulations to Willow and Alana for their excellent presentations.

Because the quality of presentations was so high once again, we are pleased to acknowledge the following Highly Commended awards:

2024 Harold Sternbeck Highly Commended Awards:

• Stephen Yeo, NSW Reconstruction Authority — Hawkesbury- Nepean River Flood Study: key features and findings.
• Mark Babister, WMAwater — Impacts of the new ARR climate change factors on flood planning levels.

2024 YFM Outstanding Presenter Highly Commended Awards:

• Van Cuong Nguyen, Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (WA) — The flow must go on: more robust river gauges for future extremes.
• Hayden Guse, WRM Water & Environment — FRMSPs when few buildings are inundated: the Boggabri case study

These two prestigious competitions are held at the FMA Annual Conference to encourage excellence across all aspects of a Conference presentation. Both 10 minute and 20 minute presentations are included. This year there were a total of 93 presentations.

The Harold Sternbeck Medal is awarded in recognition of Harold Sternbeck's contribution to FMA. Harold was a former Chairman of FMA and FMA’s first Life Member. He was a fierce negotiator on all things flood related, especially the politics of funding allocations.

The FMA Young Floodplain Managers (YFM) network exists to represent, engage, and inspire young floodplain management professionals across Australia to share new ideas and engage in industry discussions.

In addition to the formal awards, we would also like to congratulate the following presenters, who were also ranked very highly by the evaluation panel (in alphabetical order by name):

• Neil Dufty, Water Technology — Effectively engaging with indigenous communities before, during and after floods.
• Michael McMahon, HDR — Integrating climate change into design criteria: science becomes policy (International Presenter).
• Dan Rodger, JB Pacific — Flood forecasting and warnings for ICOLLS.
• Roslyn Prinsley, Australian National University — Partnering with regional communities to develop nature-based solutions to flooding.
• Prawi Woods, Alluvium Consulting — Empowering community-led resilience: a codesign approach to disaster recovery in Wisemans Ferry (Young Floodplain Manager).

Once again congratulations to all our winners, as well as all of the 90+ presenters, for their great contributions made towards the success of the 2024 FMA National Conference.

The NSW Government has announced that it will invest $94.7 million over four years in the NSW State Emergency Service (SES) to strengthen flood preparedness and response across the state and at key flood risk areas, including the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley and the Northern Rivers.

The new funding is intended to:

• Improve flood planning to better prepare for and respond to floods
• Fund critical fleet maintenance and new equipment
• Support training and volunteer recruitment activity
• Enhance public information, warnings and community engagement through channels like the SES website and the Hazards Near Me App.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said: “Communities in the Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley know all too well the devastating effects of flooding.

“The NSW Government has been working hard to get flood preparation and mitigation right.

“This includes creating safer, faster evacuation routes, improving flood resilience on our roads and ensuring the SES is well equipped to safeguard our communities in times of crisis.”

Read more at: https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/boost-to-support-flood-affected-residents-hawkesbury-region

Pictured L to R: Dale Lehman, ASFPM Foundation President; Allan Gear; Ian Dinham; Chad Berginnis, ASFPM Executive Director.

FMA Emeritus President Ian Dinham and FMA Ambassador Allan Gear have just participated in the Association of State Floodplain Managers (ASFPM) Conference at Salt Lake City in Utah, USA. The annual ASFPM Conference attracts around 2,000 attendees, and this year had 81 concurrent sessions for a total of more than 200 presentations.

Mr Dinham, who presented at the conference, said that he and Mr Gear had been vigorously promoting the 2025 FMA National Conference in Melbourne, with the aim of increasing the number of US participants at our Conference each year.

Mr Gear is a non-voting Member of the ASFPM Foundation Board, and he provided a presentation on the 2023-2024 Australian floods to the Board. He attended the conference at his own expense.

Find out more about ASFPM at floods.org.

After over 4 years in development, and informed by major floods in 2021 and 2022, the NSW Reconstruction Authority is pleased to have published the award-winning Hawkesbury-Nepean River Flood Study.  This is a vital tool for understanding and managing the risk in one of Australia’s highest risk floodplains.

You can download the Study, including the 12 technical volumes and 4 map book volumes, through the NSW Flood Data Portal. You can also read an overview (PDF 4.22MB) of the Flood Study’s development and key findings, and find more information about flood risk through the Hawkesbury-Nepean floods SES Mapping Tool.

The new Study will inform the Disaster Adaptation Plan currently being developed by NSW RA to address flood risk in the Valley.

Please do not hesitate to contact HNV@reconstruction.nsw.gov.au with any questions.

Conference presentations (PDFs) from our most recent FMA Conference are now available exclusively to FMA Members in the Members' Section of floods.asn.au. Conference Papers/Extended Abstracts were made available last month.

If you still need to send through your Full Paper or Extended abstract, please contact us. 

If you require login details, please contact Dominique Evans at projectservices@floods.asn.au.

Should you wish to join our Membership and gain access to this premier resource, please visit floods.asn.au/membership.

Sharyn Westlake from FMA International Member Greater Wellington Regional Council has advised us of a series of webinars on river and flood management provided by Resilient River Communities (resilientrivers.nz).  

The organisation is a joint initiative between Kānoa - the Regional Economic Development and Investment Unit, regional councils, and local authorities focused on developing and upgrading river management and flood protection schemes in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

FMA Members may like to note upcoming webinars and courses as part of an ongoing development programme Development Programme | Resilient River Communities (resilientrivers.nz)

FMA’s partner organisation the Australian Hydrographers Association is holding its inaugural Water Monitoring Skills Technical Workshop in Darwin, in September.

Three courses are on offer:

• Real-time water quality monitoring
• Groundwater monitoring
• Introduction to hydrometric monitoring.

Run from Monday 16 to Thursday 19 September, the program includes a Welcome Reception, Training Courses, Exhibition, Networking Dinner and Field Day.

The Field Day will allow students to gain practical experience at the beautiful Berry Springs Nature Park Berry Springs Nature Park | NT.GOV.AU

Details are at 2024 Water Monitoring Skills Training Week, Trade Exhibition - Australian Hydrographers Association (aha.net.au)

The International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research has recently released a free monograph, authored by Professor James Ball from the University of Technology Sydney and Dr Alastair Barnett from Hydra Software in New Zealand. 

The monograph “demonstrates that the greatest challenge to practical flooding risk assessment is the failure of engineering Codes of Practice to respond to projections of devastating inland and/or coastal floods throughout the 21st century”.

The document is available at: https://www.iahr.org/library/infor?pid=29833.

Thanks to Greg Mashiah from Clarence Valley Council for alerting us to this paper.

The FMA Young Floodplain Managers (YFM) network exists to represent, engage, and inspire young floodplain management professionals across Australia. 

Whilst the YFM's mission is to represent, engage, support and inspire young floodplain management professionals across the nation, anyone who supports this objective is welcome to apply for membership of the YFM and engage in the group's actions, irrespective of their age or level of experience. 

Are you interested in finding out more? You can connect with the YFM by visiting the YFM Linkedin page here or submit a YFM Membership application at floods.asn.au/yfm.

Did you know YFM Webinars and Online Panel recordings can be found in the Members' Section of floods.asn.au? If you haven’t registered for the Members’ Section, contact us to get your login details.