The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation produces floodplain mapping of rivers and major watercourses and provides floodplain development advice to ensure that proposed floodplain development has adequate flood protection and does not impact on the existing flood regime of the area.
This advice is related to major river flooding only. Other issues, such as stormwater drainage and environmental and ecological considerations are not addressed.
This dataset contains flood levels for a range of modelled design flood events. The full range of possible events are listed in the attribute fields and include:
FLDLVL_10 (1 in 10 (10%) AEP flood event)
FLDLVL_20 (1 in 20 (5%) AEP flood event)
FLDLVL_25 (1 in 25 (4%) AEP flood event)
FLDLVL_50 (1 in 50 (2%) AEP flood event)
FLDLVL_100 (1 in 100 (1%) AEP flood event)
FLDLVL_DFE (Designated flood event)
FLDLVL_200 (1 in 200 (0.5%) AEP flood event)
FLDLVL_500 (1 in 500 (0.2%) AEP flood event)
FLDLVL_MCC (Maximum channel capacity)
FLDLVL_PMF (Probable maximum flood event)
The flood levels are located at the appropriate cross sections at the centreline of the river / watercourse.
Note: To see the full scope of the floodplain mapping, 12 dataset layers are required to be loaded in the following order:
FLOODPLAIN DATASET LAYERS:
FPM Flood Level Points (m AHD)
FPM Flood Level Contours (m AHD)
FPM 1 in 100 (1%) AEP Floodway and Flood Fringe Line
FPM Extent of Flooding
FPM Levee Banks
FPM Location of Cross Sections
FPM 1 in 100 (1%) AEP Floodplain Development Control Area
FPM Map Index
FPM Bridges
FPM Special Development Condition Area
FPM 1 in 100 (1%) AEP Floodway and Flood Fringe Area
FPM Floodplain Area
The dataset covers the following areas:
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Avon River - Toodyay to Beverley.
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Bandy Creek - Esperance Townsite.
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Blackwood River – Augusta, Bridgetown, Nannup and Boyup Brook Townsites.
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Brunswick River - Greater Bunbury
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Bow River - Bow Bridge Townsite.
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Capel River - Capel Townsite.
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Chapman River – Geraldton Townsite.
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Coblinine River & Dorderyemunning Creek - Wagin Townsite.
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Cohn Creek - Merredin Townsite.
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Corrigin Townsite.
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Denmark River – Denmark Townsite.
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Five Mile Brook - Bunbury Townsite.
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Gordon River – Tambellup Townsite.
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Gribble Creek - Kalgoorlie Townsite.
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Harding River - Roebourne Townsite.
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Irwin River - Dongara Townsite.
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Lower Collie River - Greater Bunbury.
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Margaret River – Margaret River Townsite.
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Nullagine River - Nullagine Townsite.
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Preston River - Boyanup and Donnybrook Townsites.
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Serpentine River, Murray River and the Peel Inlet / Harvey Estuary - Peel Inlet / Harvey Estuary to Pinjarra and south to the Darling Scarp (Murray River) and Peel Inlet / Harvey Estuary to Wellard and east to South Western Highway (Serpentine River).
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Swan River, Canning River and Tributaries: Perth - Fremantle to Walyunga National Park (Swan River) and Canning Bridge to Brookton Highway (Canning River). Tributaries include Bennett Brook, Blackadder Creek, Ellen Brook, Helena River, Henley Brook, Jane Brook, St Leonards Creek, Susannah Brook (Swan River) and Southern River/ Wungong Brook (Canning River).
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Toby Inlet – Quindalup Townsite.
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Turkey Creek - Warmun Aboriginal Community.
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Vasse-Wonnerup Estuaries, Broadwater and New River, Abba River, Buayanup Drain, Ludlow River, Sabina River, Vasse River and Vasse Diversion Drain - Busselton Townsite.
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Willyung Creek - Albany Townsite.
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Yakamia Creek – Albany Townsite.
For further information on flooding and floodplain management in Western Australia please refer to our Water Facts publications: Flooding in Western Australia (Water facts 13) and Floodplain Management (Water facts 14).
This information is available at the following addresses:
https://www.wa.gov.au/system/files/2022-11/Water-facts-14-Floodplain-management.pdf https://www.wa.gov.au/system/files/2022-11/Water-facts-14-Floodplain-management.pdf
Glossary:
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Annual exceedance probability (AEP) - the likelihood of occurrence of a flood of a given size or larger in any one year; usually expressed as a percentage.
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1 in 100 AEP flood - this means that there is a 1 in 100 (or 1%) chance of a flow of this size or larger occurring in any one year. This flood has a 50% chance of being experienced at least once in a person's lifetime. The 1 in 100 AEP flood has been generally adopted in Australia and overseas as the basis for floodplain management planning.
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Floodplain - the portion of a river valley next to the river channel which is covered with water when the river overflows its banks during major river flows. The term also applies to land adjacent to estuaries which is subject to flooding.
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Designated flood event (DFE) - used for planning purposes and is generally the 1 in 100 (1%) AEP "designed" flood event. However, a designated flood event could be based on an "actual" flood event (e.g. Moora 1999 flood event) or an alternative scenario (i.e. Yakamia Creek - 1 in 100 (1%) AEP flood event plus sea level rise).
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Maximum channel capacity (MCC) - the maximum flow that a waterway can contain before breaking out across the floodplain during a flood event.
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Probable maximum flood (PMF) - the largest flood that could conceivably occur at a particular location, resulting from probable maximum precipitation. The PMF defines the extent of flood-prone land. Generally, it is not physically or financially possible to provide general protection against this event.
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Australian Height Datum (AHD) - is a geodetic datum for altitude measurement in Australia. It was adopted in 1971 by the National Mapping Council as the datum to which all vertical control for mapping is to be referred. The datum is based on the mean sea level (1966-1968) being assigned the value 0.000m on the Australian Height Datum (AHD) at 30 tide gauges around the coast of the Australian continent.