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A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT |
I was honoured to participate in the United States national conference of the Association of State Flood Plain Managers (ASFPM) in Phoenix, Arizona during the week of 17 to 21 June.
It was great to network with our American colleagues in the company of FMA Ambassador Mr Allan Gear who is a member of ASFPM.
The conference brings together an enormous number of presentations with everything from Hurricane Harvey debriefs to serious "nerd" flood modelling.
During the week I was asked to speak
on our Australian issues with respect to flood insurance, climate change and mitigation, which was an opportunity to describe some of the differences between our two nations.
Allan Gear and I were able to discuss many other issues with our
long time ASFPM friends such as Mr Mark Forrest from HDR (which is our first American FMA Member and Conference sponsor), as well as many other new friends.
My talk also provided the opportunity to announce that our 2018 Harold
Sternbeck Medal winner was Mr Mike McMahon, also from HDR, for his excellent presentation at our FMA Conference this year. Mr McMahon is our first international speaker to ever be awarded this prestigious medal.
I would like to express my
sincere thanks to ASFPM Chair, Mr Doug Plascensia, and Senior Policy Advisor, Mr Larry Larson, as well as all the many ASFPM members for the very warm welcome we received and our mutually agreed desire to further strengthen the excellent working relationship we have between our two great Associations.
I would encourage all FMA members to check out the ASFPM website to see the range of issues covered each year.
ID Ian Dinham | FMA President
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HAROLD STERNBECK WINNER ANNOUNCED |
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Pictured: Michael McMahon (HDR Engineering) at the FMA Conference in May.
The prestigious Harold Sternbeck Medal is awarded at the FMA Annual Conference each year to recognize excellence for the best paper presentation
at the conference.
Both 10 minute and 25 minute presentations are included. This year there was a total of 89 papers.
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.
Once again, the calibre of paper presentations at the conference was very
high.
The winner of the 2018 Harold Sternbeck Medal is Michael McMahon (HDR Engineering) for his paper entitled ‘Harvey, Irma, Maria, Debbie, Marcia and Yasi: A Dysfunctional Cyclone Family'.
With so many great paper presentations, it has been decided to also award a Highly
Commended Award:
Rhys Thomson (Rhelm) for his paper entitled ‘Show me the Money! - Economic Analysis in Floodplain Management'.
Rhys will provide an abridged version of his presentation at the NSW/ACT Chapter Meeting in Sydney on 16 August. You can read the winning papers in the Members’ Section of floods.org.au.
Have you sent through your finished Conference paper yet?
We are still
waiting on a number of papers from this year’s presenters, so contact us now.
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CONFERENCE PAPERS AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS |
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Current FMA Members can now access this year’s Conference Papers, Posters and Presentations from the Gold Coast in the Members’
Section of floods.org.au.
If you don’t already have login details, register now by emailing
Dominique Jovanovic projectservices@floods.org.au.
Access
to 2018 Conference materials is made exclusively available to FMA Members until May 2019.
Should you be interested in joining Floodplain Management Australia’s expanding national Membership, there are six
levels available:
Full Membership (Cat. 1/2) Local
government councils, county councils, catchment authorities and similar organisations
Associate Membership Local government councils, county councils, catchment authorities and similar organisations operating primarily outside NSW and QLD
Corporate Membership Consultants,
businesses, government agencies and educational institutions
Professional Membership Individuals working in floodplain management, and not representing an organisation.
Individual Membership Individuals with an interest in floodplain management and not in paid employment.
Student Membership Individuals studying in a field related to floodplain management, and not in full-time employment or acting on behalf of an organisation.
Get all of the details on Membership at floods.org.au/site/membership
Not sure if your Membership is current? Contact us now and we can help you out.
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MEDIA RELEASE - A WIN FOR AUSTRALIAN FLOOD RISK MANAGERS |
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Pictured: Duncan McLuckie (OEH) at the FMA Conference Gala Dinner in May. Floodplain Management Australia (FMA) has announced Duncan McLuckie, Office of Environment and Heritage (NSW), as the winner of the prestigious nation-wide 2018 FMA Allan Ezzy Flood Risk Manager of the Year Award. FMA President, Ian Dinham said the Award aims to recognise and promote the invaluable work individuals are doing to make their communities safer in the realm of flood risk management (FRM). “Congratulations to Duncan on his exceptional contribution over many years to FRM and for a very well deserved win” Mr. Dinham said. “Throughout his career, Duncan has shaped the nature of Australian FRM as primary author of many prominent publications including the NSW Government’s Floodplain Development Manual (2005), and the Australian Institute for Disaster
Resilience Handbook 7: Managing the Floodplain – A Guide to Best Practice in Flood Risk Management in Australia (2017), as well as a range of supporting guidelines."
"Duncan's enthusiastic engagement with committees such as the NSW Flood Data Portal, the NSW Flood Warning Consultative Committee, Australian Rainfall and Runoff Review Committee and National Flood Risk Advisory Group has made a lasting change to the understanding and management of flood risk in this country."
… Read the rest of the media release online at our Media page at floods.org.au. Also, read the Project of the Year Media Releases here.
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UPCOMING MEETINGS + VENUE CHANGES |
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FMA will be holding its next meetings in August, so save the dates below:
Queensland Chapter BRISBANE – 8 August
from 10.00am.
NSW/ACT Chapter SYDNEY – 16 August
from 10.00am.
Business Papers will be circulated at a closer time.
We can confirm that for both Meetings, there will be venue changes from the usual locations.
BRISBANE Meeting to be held at AECOM, Level 8, 450 Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley,
Queensland.
SYDNEY Meeting will NOT be held at the BoM building. Venue will be confirmed shortly and information made available at floods.org.au.
The Meetings offer the opportunity to network with other professionals within your field and catch up with newly made connections from the FMA Conference at Gold Coast.
Free morning tea and light lunch will be provided, so please RSVP as early as convenient.
Have any questions or want to RSVP, contact us now.
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NATIONAL MITIGATION FRAMEWORK
POLICY SPRINT |
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In April the Australian Government announced the formation of the National Resilience Taskforce within the Department of Home Affairs, to lead the development of a national framework for disaster mitigation.
Attendees at the FMA National Conference heard Keynote Speaker Jillian Edwards explain the role and work of the Taskforce.
The Taskforce was established to lead reforms to reduce the impact and financial burden of natural disasters on the Australian community. Its first priority is to develop a five-year national mitigation framework in consultation with the public, private and community sectors.
FMA was invited to contribute to development of the framework by participating in a National Mitigation Framework Policy Sprint in Melbourne over three days from 26 to 28 June.
The activity was facilitated by KPMG and the Department of Home Affairs.
FMA was represented at the event by Queensland Director Dwayne Honor.
Hear more about the Policy Sprint at the upcoming FMA Meetings in Brisbane and Sydney. |
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WELCOME PROSPECT ENVIRONMENTAL |
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FMA would like to welcome its newest Corporate Member to our national network of flood risk professionals - Prospect Environmental.
Prospect Environmental provides professionally engineered systems and solutions designed specifically for protecting the public prior to and during natural disasters.
Prospect’s Mission is to be the preferred of intelligent remote monitoring and warning systems throughout Australia.
The Prospect team has a long and distinguished
history in delivering Flood Early Warning Systems (FEWS) that are tailored to suit the end user and organisational requirements.
Working closely with the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), Local Government, water authorities and other associated
agencies Prospect's systems have provided real-time monitoring of rainfall, river heights and weather conditions facilitating critical warning to situational managers and the community throughout Australia.
For more information, please
visit their website.
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The FMA-OEH
Floodplain Risk Management Short Course will be taking place again this year, with blocks being held in August, September and October. The short course is aimed at engineers, emergency managers and land use planners who are engaged in or interested in the floodplain risk management industry, and are wanting to learn more about developing and implementing management plans considering best practice.
It is also suitable for elected government officials and community representatives on floodplain risk management committees seeking a background in floodplain risk management, flood mitigation, emergency management and land use planning issues. The modules will cover: Block 1
– Introduction to Flood Risk Management 2 August – 3 August 2018 Block 2 – Effective Consideration of Flood Risk in Land Use Planning 6 September – 7 September 2018 Block 3 – Managing Flood Risk to Existing Properties 4 October – 5 October
2018 Join the hundreds of FRM Short Course graduates and register today. Find out more online at floods.org.au/site/frm-short-course. |
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BRISBANE WORKSHOP ON PERFORMANCE BASED SPECS FOR RIVER/RAIN GAUGES |
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As announced at the Annual General Meeting last month FMA will from now on be holding a Meeting and Workshop each August for our Queensland Chapter.
FMA’s 8 August Brisbane Workshop will discuss the draft Standard for Flood Warning Infrastructure, and the dilemma presently facing Councils as a result of key river and rain gauge equipment no longer being available.
The new standard was developed by the National Flood Warning infrastructure Working Group and is currently available for comment, see the BoM
website.
The recent decision by Eaton to no longer supply the ALERT canisters used in river/rain gauges is forcing industry to resolve a new path forward.
The Workshop will receive a briefing from the Bureau of Meteorology, hear the experiences of equipment providers, installers and owners, and explore opportunities for the new standard.
Save the date for the Brisbane Chapter Meeting and RSVP now by contacting us.
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ONLINE HEC-RAS COURSE IN JULY |
The Australian Water School in collaboration with Krey Price of Surface Water Solutions will be holding an online Water Modelling with HEC-RAS (2D) course in July. The live and interactive mentoring course will demonstrate how to build 2D models using new features in the newly released HEC-RAS Version 5.0.5.
It will be delivered over two sessions of two hours, over a two week period from 18 – 25 July. Topics covered will include: - Adding 2D mesh refinement areas
- Adding individual culvert
coordinates
- Adding variable time steps
- Adding internal boundary conditions
- Generating rating curves
- New options for exporting results
For
more information and to register online, visit the Australian Water School
website
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Do you have a project that you would like to share with other FMA Members?
Contact us to get featured in an upcoming edition of the FMA Flyer.
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UPCOMING MEETINGS AND EVENTS |
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FLUME Engineering
If you are interested in promoting a vacant position with us, please contact us. |
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Pictured: ASFPM's Doug Plasencia (ASFPM Chair) and Larry Larson (ASFPM Senior Policy Advisor) in Phoenix, USA.
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