36TH ANNUAL FLOOD MITIGATION CONFERENCE

GRAFTON, 14-17 MAY 1996

INCREASING FLOOD AWARENESS IN BLACKTOWN

Donna Shepherd, Manidis Roberts, Consultants

Brian Chapman, Blacktown City Council

Drew Bewsher, Bewsher Consulting Pty Ltd

1. INTRODUCTION

Under the direction of Blacktown City Council, the Blacktown Floodplain Management Study has been underway for the last twelve months and a draft report is currently being considered by Council. The study has been undertaken for Council by Bewsher Consulting Pty Ltd with assistance from a number of sub-consultants including Manidis Roberts Consultants and Don Fox Planning Pty Ltd.

This paper describes the flood awareness education programme being considered within the current study.

1.1 Location

Blacktown City lies west of Sydney (see Figure 1) and the study area comprises a large portion of the local government area (LGA) as shown in Figure 2. The principal drainage system within the study area is Eastern Creek and its tributaries.

Eastern Creek drains the portion of western Sydney generally bounded by Cecil Park to the south, Plumpton to the west, Lalor Park to the east and Vineyard to the north. From its source to the north of Cecil Park, Eastern Creek flows northward through Horsley Park, Doonside, Schofields and Riverstone. It then joins South Creek near Vineyard which in turn enters the Hawkesbury River just downstream of Windsor.

1.2 People

Blacktown has the largest population of any LGA in NSW and is the second largest LGA in Australia after Brisbane city. Blacktown's population growth has been rapid, almost twice the rate of Sydney. Its population in 1991 was in excess of 210,000 people and is estimated to be approaching 250,000 at the current time.

There is a high ethnic composition within the community. The population is extremely diverse, both culturally and linguistically, comprising established communities from Europe and recent arrivals from Asia and the Middle East. It is estimated that approximately 30% are overseas' born, including over 20% from non-English speaking countries.

The population has a high proportion of young people, with 45% under 25 years of age. There is also a relatively high proportion of unqualified persons. In 1991, 65% of those aged 15 or older held no post-secondary school qualifications and only 4% held university or higher qualifications.

1.3 The Flood Problem

The most severe flooding occurs in the north of the study area near Riverstone and results from back-up of floodwaters from the Hawkesbury River. Approximately 180 houses are inundated above floor level in the 100 year ARI flood. A further 28 commercial or industrial properties are also flooded above their floors in this event.

There is a further serious risk in floods larger and less frequent than the 100 year event. The probable maximum flood (PMF) is 11m higher than the 100 year event and would result in approximately 2,000 properties being affected.

Flood waters can also originate from the Eastern Creek catchment. Near Riverstone whilst these types of floods are significant, they are not as large as those from the Hawkesbury River. However in the upper parts of the study area, these Eastern Creek catchment floods dominate. Fortunately, given the lack of residential development within the upper Eastern Creek floodplain, there are relatively few houses inundated in the 100 year event.

Flooding within the study area also occurs along the tributaries of Eastern Creek. These creek systems are usually flooded from thunderstorms or short-duration rainfall. It is estimated that approximately 25 houses are flooded and approximately 200 properties affected along these tributaries in a 100 year event.

2. REDUCING FLOOD DAMAGE COSTS BY INCREASING FLOOD AWARENESS

Flooding is Australia's most manageable natural disaster. In NSW, floods and storms are the state's two most serious hazards in monetary terms. Much of these costs result from a lack of response to the hazard.

2.1 Benefits Of Flood Awareness

Communities which understand the hazards they face and know how to prepare for them will have a better chance of mitigating the effects of disaster than those which do not. Where there has been sufficient flood warning and flood awareness education, there can be substantial savings to direct flood losses. D.I. Smith (1990) documents savings of over 80% for commercial properties that take reasonable actions such as lifting stock and equipment to higher ground. Considerable savings can be made by undertaking actions to lift and evacuate contents in both residential and commercial sectors.

2.2 A Prepared Community Must Be Created

Chas Keys (1995) of the NSW State Emergency Service suggests that:

"Flood and storm threats are neither frequent enough in their impact nor severe enough in their usual consequences for experience of them to generate deliberate protective behaviour in most people. Accordingly, the prepared community must be purposefully created if the effects of exposure to these hazards are to be reduced. This means that the credibility of the threats posed by floods and storms must be established so that respect for them can be built. If this is done, warnings will be more effective in triggering appropriate responses when a flood or storm event is imminent".

2.3 Education Can Replace Experience

Most flood prone communities have developed their own informal flood response networks, this is particularly evident in rural regions where buildings are usually sited to avoid flood damage and procedures to move stock and equipment are well developed. Conversely urban communities, where there is often less knowledge of the local area due to shorter lengths of stay, are often less attuned to the risks and to measures they can take to mitigate against loss. For example in the August 1986 Sydney flood, approximately 50% of people who suffered losses had vehicles damaged at their homes, a loss easy to mitigate against with some education. (D.I. Smith, 1990).

2.4 Community Awareness of Flooding

The community's awareness of flooding in the study area was determined from the available census statistics and from a questionnaire which was distributed to over 600 households and 100 businesses which were known to be inundated in the 100 year event. Approximately one half of the population of floodprone areas have not experienced a flood and 25% of those who have experienced floods, have not received any formal notification about flooding.

Discussions with Council staff and members of the community suggest that the population is generally apathetic about flooding and has a relatively low flood experience. Exceptions to this do occur however, and it is noted that the Riverstone and District Flood and Drainage Committee occasionally organise meetings whenever there are local flood issues to discuss.

The majority of respondents to the questionnaire believe that public education, community participation and flood awareness programmes would have prevented or reduced flood damage on their properties in previous floods and believe that this option should be investigated in further detail.

2.5 Relevant Socio-Economic-Demographic Characteristics

The community characteristics that are most relevant to a flood awareness programme are as follows:

• population change. The increase, stability or loss of population in a flood-affected area is important because either more, the same number or less people will be affected by flooding. In Blacktown, some suburbs within the floodplain have seen rapid growth increasing by over 200% in the five year period to 1991.

• level of home ownership. Home owners and purchasers have a higher financial and emotional tie to their property, and are more concerned than tenants about flood damage. The rate of home ownership and purchase in Blacktown is very similar to that for Sydney, with 66% of occupied private dwellings being owned or purchased. The remainder of dwellings are rented from the Department of Housing (14%), rented from private landlords (10% of dwellings) or have other tenure arrangements.

• length of residence. This is an important indicator of residents' knowledge of and ties to the area and community in which they live. In Blacktown, the proportion of people that have lived at the same address for five years or more at the time of the 1991 census is highest in the older and more established suburbs of Schofields (64%), Riverstone (59%), Vineyard and Dean Park (58%). Conversely, less than 25% of people living in the newer residential developments of Hassell Grove, Shanes Park and Plumpton had lived in those suburbs for five years or more.

• ability to speak English. The proportion of residents that were born overseas in a non-English-speaking country or that speak another language at home in some ways reflects the ability of residents to speak English well. The degree to which residents understand English, and the main languages spoken by those of non-English speaking backgrounds, is an essential issue to be considered in the development of a flood awareness education programme.

3.0 PRINCIPLES IN DEVELOPING A FLOOD AWARENESS EDUCATION PROGRAMME

The principles which have been employed in developing a flood awareness education programme for Blacktown are discussed below. The objective of the programme has been to provide residents and business owners with knowledge and experience to mitigate flood hazards.

3.1 Multi-Faceted Education Programmes Work Best

Past experience in the area of flood awareness has shown that using a diversity of communication techniques works best. Strategies need to be targeted to reach broad audiences to achieve best results. This will guarantee that the same messages are conveyed in different ways which will cater for a variety of learning styles and have the benefit of being repetitive allowing for better absorption of the information. At Blacktown, it is also proposed to have information readily available at a number of information nodes. The information nodes would be installed at popular locations to allow for maximum interaction.

3.2 Flood Education Programmes To Coincide With "Teachable Moments"

Research has shown that the most successful flood education programmes are targeted at "teachable moments" (C. Keys, 1995) Teachable moments are strategic times at which the community's awareness of an issue is at an optimum and therefore their receptiveness to learn about these issues is also high. Activities should be planned to coincide with dates such as those commemorating past hazard events, times of year where hazards regularly occur and community awareness weeks.

3.3 Create Partnerships For More Effective Flood Awareness

Experience in flood awareness education has also shown that community awareness can often be enhanced by creating partnerships with organisations which have interests in heightening the community's understanding of hazards (C. Keys, 1995). This includes initiating partnerships with other local councils, local community groups, the State Emergency Service, Australian Co-ordination Committee for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, Emergency Management Australia, other interested organisations, and the media.

3.4 Experimental Educative Techniques

People learn better by doing. Past floods have shown that people with previous flood experience are generally able to mitigate flood hazards more successfully. In Blacktown however, many residents and business owners have not experienced a flood. An education programme therefore is needed to redress this lack of experience by using educative techniques that are experientially based. Participants of the programmes should be actively involved in a learning cycle where they would be given information on past floods and be led through simulated flood conditions to enable them to learn how to best mitigate flood damage losses.

4. PROPOSED FLOOD AWARENESS PROGRAMME FOR BLACKTOWN

The proposed Blacktown flood awareness education programme offers a diversity of techniques to respond to the wide range of stakeholders involved. It mixes both reactive and pro-active community techniques to meet the needs of stakeholders, particularly those with physical, language or literacy difficulties. Within the programme there are seven tasks proposed. The tasks are linked together by a flood icon with a colour coding system which describes the intensity of various floods that Blacktown has experienced in past years. Each task is described below.

4.1 Flood Totem Poles (Flood Icon)

The flood totem poles will be the central symbol and visual focal point for the education programme. They will be innovative in design and visually arresting. Their main purpose will be to facilitate the communities understanding of flooding. By using shape and colour the poles will indicate the depths of past floods in Blacktown.

The totem poles will be erected in strategic parts of flood affected Blacktown. These locations are likely to be adjacent to major creek crossings and some distance away from residential and commercial development, to avoid adverse local reaction. The totem poles will enable the community to compare the past flood depths indicated with surrounding areas to imagine the potential impact of future floods. The relative magnitude of past flood events will also be evident.

The shape and colour of the poles will also become an icon which the community will associate with flooding. This association will be strengthened by widespread use of the icon in displays and printed material throughout the flood awareness education programme. In addition, Council and the SES could use the icon on all publications relating to flooding which were distributed within the catchment.

4.2 Touring Flood Display

The flood display will feature display stands, photographic material, sketches, surveys and documents. A major component of the display will be a flood hazard game which will be developed specifically to encourage community involvement in the display while teaching them how to mitigate flood hazards. It is envisaged that the display will tour shopping centres, RSL clubs and schools.

4.3 Media Strategy

Information on the flood awareness education programme will be widely disseminated via radio and the local press. The media will also be used to advertise key messages that the education programme is communicating. The flood icon and colour coding system relating to past floods will also be used here.

4.4 Training Key People

To facilitate the dissemination of information it is proposed to train representatives in the media, police, schools and community groups to become flood awareness trainers. This will empower them to train others in their workplace and will give the community resources enabling the programme to become self generating in the future.

4.5 Educating New Business Owners And Residents

An information package on flooding with details of actions to take at times when flooding is likely to occur will be sent to new business owners and residents with their rates notices. These information packages will also be distributed to new tenants of rented premises.

4.6 Monitoring And Evaluation

At regular stages of the education programme, communication techniques will be monitored and evaluated. It is envisaged that some form of community survey will be a key component of this process. The effectiveness of the communication techniques will be assessed and where necessary changed to ensure the messages of the flood awareness programme are communicated and targeted in the best ways possible.

4.7 Report And Recommendations

A report on the flood awareness education programme will be submitted at the completion of the project. The report will include results from the travelling display, surveys, and evaluation of the effectiveness of the programme. The report will also include suggestions for further flood awareness education.

The proposed programme is expected to cost $110K and take 12 months to complete.

5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to thank Blacktown City Council for permission to publish this paper. It is noted that the flood awareness education programme is still in a draft form and has not yet been formally approved by Council.

A number of individuals have provided input to the proposed education programme. The authors particularly acknowledge the assistance provided by Rick Haines and Chas Keys of The State Emergency Services (Wollongong), and Neil Benning and Marcus Walsh of the Department of Land & Water Conservation (Parramatta).

6. REFERENCES

Bewsher Consulting Pty Ltd. 1996. Blacktown Floodplain Management Study. Draft Report in Preparation for Blacktown City Council.

Keys, C. 1995. Workshop on Atmospheric Hazards: Process, Awareness and Response. Brisbane. University of Queensland. 1995.

Smith, D.I. 1990. Floodwarnings, Response and Damage Reduction: The Australian Experience. Floodplain Management Conference. The Ontario Industry of Natural Resources, Environment Canada, The Association of Conservation Authorities of Ontario. 1990.