The Government of South Australia has developed a website for the community to view floodplain mapping. The website encourages communities to be more resilient by understanding their flood risk, and is a key initiative in South Australia’s implementation of the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience, under the strategic priority of ‘understanding risk’. The website was commissioned in September 2014.

Developing a single website for the community to view flood maps has presented many challenges. Significant consultation and negotiations were required between the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR), local government authorities (councils), the Local Government Association of South Australia, emergency services, and a range of organisations that have undertaken flood studies. Issues arising during this process included: liability and insurance concerns for councils, designing an appropriate web interface for presentation of the information, dealing with inconsistencies in spatial data between studies, agreeing on data-sharing conditions, and managing community and government expectations for sharing of information.

For many organisations in South Australia – particularly councils – the concept of freely and publically sharing flood risk information to promote community awareness and disaster resilience represents a significant shift away from how flood risk information has previously been managed and communicated. DEWNR has identified several strategies to streamline the process of collecting and sharing future flood studies, including linking data sharing agreements to funding agreements, and implementing standard briefs for flood studies to ensure that future outputs are consistent.