Flood Watch and Some Issues About Them

Opper,S and Gissing, A. (2005) Presented at the 45th annual conference of the NSW Floodplain Management Authorities, Narooma 22-25 February 2005

The Flood Watch is one product from a comprehensive suite of weather and warning products produced by the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology (CBM). The Flood Watch represents an attempt by the CBM (and the State Emergency Service (SES) with whom the Bureau works closely) to maximise the warning lead time available to people who are at risk due to riverine flooding. Rather than being a prediction of flooding, a Flood Watch is a forecast of the likelihood of flooding. Inherent in a Flood Watch therefore, is the uncertainty associated with any weather forecast. This uncertainty creates a risk management challenge that must be confronted by the community, the SES and CBM. This paper considers some of these risk management issues.

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