15-Sep-2011

Healthier water courses are vital for reducing the most damaging impacts of flooding – this was the main message at the SEQ Post Flood Science Review and Planning Forum held in Brisbane earlier this month.

Key scientists, planners and managers working on the post flood restoration of southeast Queensland’s natural assets held a forum in Brisbane to discuss how the health of rivers, streams and gullies reduce the impacts of major storms and floods.

SEQ Catchments CEO Simon Warner said healthy watercourses provide a number of benefits to the community.

“Healthier watercourses reduce downstream flooding, improves the quality of drinking water supplies, decreases the cost of treating water, reduces pollution in our rivers and Moreton Bay and increases the resilience of catchments to erosion,” he said.

‘‘We now need policy makers and planners to prioritise rebuilding natural watercourse resilience throughout southeast Queensland. This can be done largely through revegetating riparian areas.’’  

Leading researchers demonstrated that degraded watercourses with poorly vegetated riparian zones – the area between the high banks of watercourses – will have faster and more damaging storm-flows, quicker movement of floodwaters downstream to major urban areas such as Brisbane and higher erosion. Sediments from erosion degrade water supplies and the health of rivers and Moreton Bay. Researchers also highlighted the importance of managing floodplains to minimise damage and downstream impacts.  

Each of these factors contributed to the serious economic, infrastructure and environmental losses caused by the January 2011 storms and floods.

Professor Jon Olley of the Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute emphasised the cost benefits of improving waterway resilience.

“The benefits of rebuilding the natural resilience of southeast Queensland’s watercourses will pay for itself in reduced water treatment costs alone,” he said.

Many of the major watercourses throughout southeast Queensland have been badly degraded since European settlement, particularly in the Lockyer and Upper Brisbane catchments.