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Home > Coastal and floodplains > Floodplains > Rural floodplain management

Floodplains

Rural floodplain management

Generally, in rural flood prone areas of western NSW the development of arable land for agriculture does not require Council consent. In these situations, DNR manages rural floodplains designated under Part 8 of the Water Act, 1912. DNR is responsible for assessing and approving flood control works associated with agricultural pursuits (earthworks, channels, embankments or levees) which can affect the distribution of floodwaters within designated floodplains.

DNR's predecessors became involved in rural floodplain management during the 1970's, developing floodplain development guidelines for irrigation areas in western NSW. These guidelines mapped overland flow paths and arable land that could be protected from flooding, but were only advisory in nature. A number of initiatives were adopted by the State Government in 1998 in response to community needs to make rural floodplain management more strategic and consistent with stakeholder requirements and natural resource management policies.

Actions initiated include:

• Development of strategic rural floodplain management plans to minimise the flood risk to rural farming communities and address environmental issues by removing barriers to natural flooding regimes and fostering ecologically sustainable development;
• Promoting greater community involvement and ownership in formulating management strategies by setting up community based steering committees to oversee the development of rural plans;
• Amendments to Part 8 (1999), making rural plans the statutory basis for assessing flood control works.

Part 8 links DNR’s role in rural floodplain management with the role of Councils by requiring DNR to also follow the general principles and policies of the Floodplain Development Manual 2005 when preparing rural floodplain management plans.

Whilst Council’s urban plans may include a variety of measures to mitigate the flood risk and control land use on flood prone land, the ‘fixed nature’ of agricultural assets makes structural options such as levees often the only viable measure to reduce rural flood damage. Rural floodplain management plans set out schemes for the unimpeded passage of floodwaters whilst recognising landholders may change land use for agricultural pursuits over time. In this way, rural plans address flood risk by minimising the impact of farming development on flood behaviour and defining areas that can be protected and the degree of protection allowable. This allows individual landholders to make informed decisions on the level of flood protection they may wish to provide their properties. Where there are currently no rural plans existing floodplain development guidelines are still used to assist landholders.