Assisting Local Flood Management by Using Conceptual Spatial Distributed Hydrological Model

Abstract

One required information for land use planners and drainage engineers is a map to show the location of flood exposed area in new developing sites or in already developed townships. Land use planners are often interested to grant new estate development permission far from flood prone areas. Drainage engineers are also interested in examining the effect of upslope catchment on the specific area. Routine flood extent delineation has been focused on well-developed channels for major streams using the hydrodynamic models either one dimensional, two dimensional, or coupled 12 Dimension. Although these models can produce precise results for flood plain management practices, they cannot represent flood risk area between two major streams, most of which are occupied by townships. Furthermore, such models need various input requirements, hence conceptual models can help to overcome mentioned deficiencies. Topographic Index (TI) is one of conceptual hydrological models which can be utilised to help not only hydrologist and drainage engineers but also land use planners. Current study aims to describe the application of TI in local flood management in Inverloch, Victoria, Australia.