Flood Planning

The NSW SES undertakes flood planning as a legislative responsibility to determine how to best respond to floods as the combat agency.

The NSW State Flood Plan outlines arrangements for responding to floods in NSW.

Local Flood Plans (LFP) are subordinate plans of the Local Disaster Plan (DISPLAN) which describes emergencies and the responsible combat and support agencies. The LFP describes the risk to the community, outlines roles and responsibilities for the SES and supporting agencies and describes how the SES will manage flood events.

Current plans for public comment

Flood Intelligence

Flood intelligence describes flood behaviour and its effects on the community.

Flood effects include: 

• Inundation (leading to a need for evacuation, property protection and/or rescue)
• Isolation (creating risk to life and the need for resupply and/or rescue)
• Disruption to community activities (for example because of the loss of electricity supply or transport routes)

Flood intelligence is obtained by gathering and assessing information, over the full range of possible flood types and severities, so that the likely effects of developing floods can be assessed.

Intelligence is used to facilitate operational decision making and the provision of warnings and information to agencies and the public.

Flood intelligence enables the SES to determine (from predicted flood heights and an understanding of community needs and characteristics), the likely impacts of flooding, what actions will need to be taken by response agencies and what information and advice should be provided to community members.

Conducting post flood data collection surveys are part of gathering flood intelligence. Visit the Post Flood Data and Flood Intelligence Review page for more information and feedback from recent reviews.