DNRM’s Spatial Information Group (SIG) played a lead role in response to the recent Queensland natural disasters through the coordination and provision of aerial imagery, flood mapping and on-line access to critical spatial information. This data has been used by many key agencies including Emergency Management Queensland, Australian Defence Force, Queensland Reconstruction Authority, Flood Commission of Inquiry, Bureau of Meteorology, local, state and federal agencies, non-government organisations, the Insurance Council of Australia as well as the public. This presentation will explain the critical role spatial information played in the response to the recent disasters in Queensland and how we plan to deploy it in future events. These examples highlight the importance and value an understanding of Geography has to effective communication and decision-making by both providers and consumers of geographic information. Presented by Steve Jacoby, General Manager, Spatial Information, Department of Natural Resources and Mines (QLD)

1. Department of Natural Resources & Mines
Geography in the 21st Century
Role of Spatial Information in Response to
Queensland’s Natural Disasters
Steve Jacoby
General-Manager Spatial Information, DNRM
Chair Queensland Spatial Information Council
steven.jacoby@dnrm.qld.gov.au
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/legalcode

2. Contents
• Role of Spatial Information (Qld Floods & Cyclone Yasi)
– Aerial photography
– Satellite imagery
– Recording of flood lines
– Before & After mapping
• How this information was used
– Queensland Reconstruction Authority
– Premier’s Disaster Relief Fund
– Commission of Inquiry
• Work completed in the last year
• Challenges & future work
• Resource list

3. Spatial Information Group - DNRM
• - surveying infrastructure
• - cadastral information
• - topographic information
• - imagery
• - mapping products and services
• - GIS modelling & analysis

4. Area of Queensland is
1.734M km2
• Larger than Alaska
• 2.5x size of Texas
• 7x size of Great Britain
• 42x size of The Netherlands
Population of Queensland is
approx 4.6M
2,100 km Population density is approx
(1,300 mi) 2.5 people per km2
65% of Queenslanders live in
South East Queensland
...
1,550 km 16th Libya
(960 mi) 17th Queensland
18th Iran
• Brisbane
...

5. Queensland Floods & Cyclones Summary
– Summer 10 / 11
• Largest natural disaster in Queensland’s history
• Flooding covered 70% of the State
• 35 people dead, 3 remain missing Dec 2010
Rainfall
• 136,000 residential properties affected 800mm
600mm
• 148,000 buildings damaged 400mm
300mm
• 9,170 km State owned roads damaged 200mm
• 4,787 km rail damaged 100mm
• 480,000 residents lost power
• 126,688 insurance claims
• $6.8B damages
• $9B lost productivity
• Over $277M dispersed from the Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal

6. Queensland floods – prelude...
• El Nino drought had gripped the Country since 2000
• Water storages in Wivenhoe reached 15% in August 2007
• But by early 2010, La Nina had arrived in force
• Wivenhoe achieved 95% (storage compartment) in March 2010
• September races in Birdsville were cancelled (first time in 128yrs)
• Central and Western districts were saturated
• By December 10, four people had died in flood waters in the State
• Brisbane was experiencing its wettest December on record
Historic water levels in Lake Wivenhoe (seqwater)
126% - October 2010
95% - March 2010
15% - August 2007

7. Queensland floods – last week in December
• Tropical Cyclone Tasha (Cat 1) crossed the coast just south of
Cairns on Christmas Day – heading south
• 160 people from Dalby & 50 people from Chinchilla evacuated
(27th & 28th Dec)
• Theodore becomes the first town to be fully evacuated in
Queensland’s history on the 29th December
• 400 people forced to leave their homes in Bundaberg &
130 from Condamine (30th Dec)
• 1,000 homes affected in Emerald by the 31st December
DNRM (Spatial Information) were called in on 27th December to
assist Red Cross with mapping support for their deployment

9. Flood Affected Towns
31 December, 2010

10. Queensland floods – Spatial Information Group
• By 1 Jan:
– Record levels were being forecast by Bureau of Meteorology in
many centres
– We began planning for acquisition of aerial photography to record
the peak flood event in the major centres (if possible)
• One of our existing R&D projects began supplying Satellite
Radar data through to EMQ
– Queensland (led by DNRM) is a participant in the Cooperative
Research Centre – Spatial Information
– EMQ began receiving images via UNSW from an Italian radar satellite
– Radar can operate at night and independent of cloud
– Satellites can be tasked quickly and data delivered within hours…

11. 1st Jan Cosmo Skymed
Radar satellite imagery
UNSW / CRC Spatial Information
(Record peak 16.05m 0600 31st Dec)

12. Cosmo Skymed 1st Jan
Radar satellite imagery
overlaid with aerial photography

13. Data acquisition program (week 1)
Sun 2nd ~ Sat 8th January
• Towns expected to peak at record levels included:
– Fitzroy – Rockhampton (5th)
– Condamine-Balonne – Surat (4th), St George (8th+), Dirranbandi & Hebel
– Moonie – Thallon (tba)
– Weir – Talwood (tba)
• DNRM set about acquiring aerial photography over these towns to
coincide with expected record flood peaks
– Weather permitting!
• Discovered that Rockhampton Council had arranged aerial
photography for the city & surrounds as had Banana Shire
• Discovered contractors had acquired Emerald (31st) on ‘spec’
• Organised a tender from DNRM’s panel for the other 6 towns
– Tendered and let same day (Tue 4th) – flying commenced on Wed 5th

15. Aerial Photography
• Queensland’s flying season is not December & January!
– Prefer clear, dry conditions (April – September)
• Cloud is the major factor. Aircraft can get under cloud (down to
500m) but end up acquiring significantly more data at greater cost
• Costs average between $80 - $150 per km2
• High resolution data is around 15cm but can
be as low as 3cm pixels
• ‘Fast Mosaic’ usually delivered in 2 days
• Final imagery in 7 days+
• Not suited to Disaster Response due to the
time lag in getting the data

16. Timely Delivery of Information
Critical to have
information in the first
few minutes / hours for
Response:
~ flash flood
~ wildfire
~ search & rescue
~ tsunami
~ infrastructure failure
~ terrorist attack

17. International Charter – Space & Major Disasters
• Made aware of this International Agreement
• First time used in Australia - Imagery is provided on a ‘best
endeavours’ basis by operators (can’t task the satellites)
• Commenced 4th Jan – Over 120 images / 12 satellite sensors
Interesting more than useful – good research opportunities

18. Landsat5
4th January
Burdekin River

19. Geoeye
Optical satellite
6th January
Rockhampton

20. 7th Jan
Aster Satellite
Rockhampton

21. Landsat5 Mosaic
Condamine – Balonne River
6th January
DMCii
Cubbie Station
14th January

22. Key maps are available for all
imagery products collected by
DNRM as well as those under the
Charter (120+).
Thumbnails (as above) & raw
digital data held by DNRM.

24. ‘After’ map usually available
‘Before’ map prepared from within a week of flying
Queensland Aerial Imagery Library – fast mosaic within 2 days

25. …Flash floods – Toowoomba & Lockyer Valley
(Mon 10 Jan)

26. Toowoomba & Lockyer Valley flash floods (Mon 10th Jan)
• Provision of DEM and aerial
photography services (before &
after) - inquests
• Engaged ADF for aerial
photography support (1 Topo Sq)
• Photo-mosaic base mapping –
multiple local governments

27. Post flood Pre flood

28. Post flood Pre flood

31. Ipswich & Brisbane flood
(12th & 13th Jan)
• Two day’s advance notice
• Expected to be less than 1974
• Demand for historic flood
mapping data (from 1974)
• DEM and contour information
• Aerial photography acquisition 1975
• Flood line mapping
– Record of the event
Historic water levels in Lake Wivenhoe (seqwater)

32. Brisbane River
• Peaked at 4.46m at 3:30am on Thursday 13th January
2011 (5.45m in 1974)
• Flow of 9,400 cumecs (cubic metres per second) at the
City Gauge

34. Flood Line Mapping
• Was completed for
Brisbane & Ipswich
• 2D photo-
interpretation
• Imagery acquired
13th & 14th Jan
Debris lines • Aided by Lidar &
0.25m contours
• Important record of
actual water line –
not a modelled
level from gauge
readings or
discrete
observations

35. Preliminary FloodFlood Extent – Brisbane CBD
Preliminary Line Line Extent – Newfarm
Fairfield

36. BCC line
DNRM line

37. DNRM line
BCC line
Amended line?

38. BCC line
DNRM line
Amended line?

39. Brisbane & Ipswich – 2011 flood extents

40. Tropical Cyclone Yasi
Crossed the coast near Mission Beach at approx 12:30am on 3 Feb, 2011 (BoM)

41. Legend
BoM TC Yasi Very Destructive Winds (Greater than 165 km/hr)
BoM TC Yasi Destructive Winds (125-164 km/hr)
BoM TC Yasi Gale Force Winds (90-125 km/hr)
Cairns
TC Larry Intense Damage area
TC Larry Outer Damage area
Almaden
TC Larry Track
Innisfail
Mission Beach
Gerogeto
wn Cardwell
Ingham
Greenvale
Townsville
TC Larry TC Yasi
• 20-21 Mar 2006 • 2-4 Feb 2011
• Category 4 • Category 5
• 945 hPa • 930 hPa
• Gusts up to 240 km/hr • Gusts up to 290 km/hr

42. Spatial Information Program
~ TC Yasi
• Natural Disasters impacted 210 towns and
suburbs
• 187 were flood affected AAM aircraft & crew
• 23 affected by TC Yasi
• Again aerial photography was critical
• Before & After maps in towns
• Weather more challenging...
Flying conditions after TC Yasi Hinchinbrooke Is.

43. Port Hinchinbrook after TC Yasi

44. Port Hinchinbrook pre TC Y

49. Importance of the Flood Lines and Damage Extents
• Spatial Imagery & the resultant Flood Lines have become critical
products and a key record of these events
– Insurance processing
– Metrics for affected properties, businesses, infrastructure, etc
– Planning and reconstruction
– Tax concessions
– Commission of Inquiry (critical record)
– Relief claims

50. Premier’s Disaster Relief Appeal
• Amended assessment process – ‘water over floor-boards’
• Geocoded all applications and checked them against flood lines
• 21,400 applications / 7 day operation
• Joint effort with Premiers, Communities and Centrelink

51. Goodna 2011 – Claims for PDRA assistance

52. • Ability to ‘layer’ in flood lines into a 3D model?
• Requires high resolution data (Lidar) & rigorous survey / image
capture techniques
• Can this approach be used to convey flood warnings / risk?

53. It’s all about Geography!
Predictive capabilities and public understanding
• Brisbane is located on a very active
floodplain
• Only half of the Brisbane catchment
is regulated by Wivenhoe Dam
• Local rainfall and concentration
times (36 to 48hrs max)
• Storm water drains & infrastructure
• Warnings given relative to ‘1974’ or
in metres at the ‘City Gauge’
• Flood Flag maps (BCC) show where
flooding may occur
• How well does the public
understand flood risk?

54. Brisbane & Ipswich – 2011 flood and Probable Maximum Flood extents

55. Produced inundation maps
for 14 / 126 River sub-basins where
we had satellite imagery available

56. Developed a new floodplain mapping technique
10m Contours LandSat Gauging Heights
Pre-cleared Stream Orders Aerial for towns
vegetation 5–9

59. State-wide mapping
• Floodplains for all relevant sub-
basins have been completed (115 /
126)
• Floodplains cover 26.6% Queensland
or 450,000 km2 and 440 towns
• 8,854 map pages produced (A3
@1:50,000 scale)
• Mapping was completed in 7 months
- Largest mapping program of its type
undertaken in Australia
• Lidar coverage complete for all but
80 towns with population on the
floodplain

60. St George Feb 2012
• Lidar coverage available
• Flood lines available from 2011
• Estimated flood gradient available
• Predictive inundation models
generated
– 13.1m previous record in 2010
– 13.5m
– 14.0m
– 14.5m
– 15.0m
• Highway shown to be cut at 13.4m
• Mandatory evacuation ordered
• River peaked at 13.95m

61. St George – predicted 15.0m inundation

62. St George – 2012 flood peak at 13.95m

63. Qld Floods Commission of Inquiry
• Released March 2012
• Final report contained 177 recommendations
• State Government supports all recommendations…
• Current flood studies for all urban areas
• Non urban areas to be assessed and mapped for flood
risk
• All Councils to maintain up-to-date flood information
• Flood maps and property specific flooding information
intended for use by the general public should be readily
interpretable
• All flood mapping to be available through websites…
• Clearly an important on-going role for Spatial Information
to help communicate effective and timely flood risk

64. Key lessons and areas for further research
1. Imagery
- is required before and immediately after an event: timeliness
2. Flood lines
- important to have an authoritative record of major flood events
- important to calibrate models
- different approaches for urban vs rural
3. Data Issues
- having existing, current, high resolution elevation data is critical
- floor levels and building construction data required
- flood information (hydrologic and hydraulic models) critical
4. Communication & Awareness
- Mapping & 3D models that are ‘fit for purpose’
- effectively and accurately convey risk and warnings
- public education and awareness

65. Key Resources
• Qld Floods Commission of Inquiry Website:
www.floodcommission.qld.gov.au
final report of the Commission of Inquiry (March 2012)
• QRA Website: www.qldreconstruction.org.au
interactive mapping, floodlines, before & after maps
• QGIS Website: http://dds.information.qld.gov.au/dds/
download imagery& floodlines
• DNRM Website:
http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/mapping/flood/index.html
access & download satellite imagery, aerial photography, floodlines, town maps,
web services for the 2012 SW Queensland Floods

66. Charleville 2012 Roma 2012
The End / Questions