Managing levees and clearing waterways in urban areas outside Melbourne
Draft Victorian Floodplain Management Strategy Information Sheet
The Victorian Government is seeking public feedback on the Draft Victorian Floodplain
Management Strategy
The proposed policies, actions and accountabilities set the policy direction for floodplain management in Victoria.
Information in this handout sets out the proposals in the draft strategy that relate to the use and maintenance of levees in urban areas in regional and metropolitan Victoria.
The floodplain management strategy aims to better prepare Victoria for severe flooding by improving the evaluation and communication of flood risks. In this way it aims to enable communities and relevant agencies to take better-informed actions to manage floods.
The strategy builds on important lessons from the 2010, 2011 and 2012 floods. It also integrates the outcomes of the subsequent review into the effectiveness of flood warning and response systems, and the inquiry into flood mitigation infrastructure.
Accountabilities for new flood mitigation infrastructure
In Melbourne Water’s region, levees are managed by Melbourne Water in cooperation with local councils.
Outside Melbourne, local councils are accountable for determining their communities’ needs with regard to levees. In doing this they take into account the associated economic, social, cultural and environmental benefits and costs.
Where the total benefits outweigh the total costs, the costs of designing and building large-scale urban levees will be shared equally between the Commonwealth Government, the Victorian
Government and the relevant councils. Those councils are then accountable for the ongoing management and maintenance of the levee. Formal management arrangements will be implemented as Water Management Schemes under the Water Act.
Accountabilities for existing flood mitigation infrastructure
Where there are unmanaged levees in urban areas, the relevant Municipal Planning Schemes must acknowledge that the infrastructure will not provide any flood protection. The relevant
Municipal Flood Emergency Plan must also provide for the potential for catastrophic failure of levee.
Levees will be brought into formal management arrangements, where a council outside
Melbourne in consultation with its local community, determines, that existing large-scale levees are a necessary part of its flood defences.
The costs of restoring or upgrading existing large-scale urban levees to bring them into formal management arrangements will be shared equally between the Commonwealth Government, the Victorian Government and the relevant local councils. This will only apply to urban areas outside Melbourne, Those councils will then be accountable for the ongoing levee management and maintenance.
Successful levees
Well-maintained levees in urban areas can deliver significant benefits. This was demonstrated in the towns of Kerang and Nathalia in the 2010–11 floods. Levees had been constructed there
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in response to previous large floods and, importantly, they had been regularly maintained. As a result, both towns were spared extensive flood damage.
In recognition of their public benefits, construction costs for these levees were shared between the relevant council, the Victorian and the Commonwealth Governments. The councils took responsibility for ongoing maintenance.
This approach has been applied successfully again since the 2010-11 floods. For example, the local Creswick community has agreed to build a new levee under similar arrangements. It has also agreed to meet the ongoing maintenance costs.
Providing certainty about ongoing management and maintenance
The people whose properties are being protected by levees deserve assurance that their levee will perform to its design standards when it is required. Regular auditing of the levee and its maintenance is required. Quite apart from the risks of levee failure, there remains a real likelihood that levees may overtop. These risks must be documented, communicated and incorporated into municipal emergency planning.
Councils will be accountable for the maintenance and management of all urban levees accepted as Water Management Schemes by the Minister for Water. Management and maintenance will be subject to third-party auditing arrangements to ensure it is being performed.
Enabling flood mitigation activities on waterways
Where flood studies demonstrate that flood risks can be materially reduced by large-scale flood mitigation activities on waterways, individuals or councils will be able to carry out those activities subject to authorisation granted by Catchment Management Authorities or Melbourne
Water.
If a waterway is to be modified or if vegetation, debris or sediment is to be removed from a waterway for flood mitigation purposes, and these activities are to be implemented as Water
Management Schemes, the relevant council will be responsible for undertaking the work (in compliance with any relevant conditions) and for all ongoing maintenance.
Large-scale flood mitigation activities on waterways must be demonstrated, through a flood study, to be cost effective, that is, have demonstrable benefits in terms of reduced average annual flood damage and those benefits must be greater than any costs to waterway health.
Detailed information on managing levees and clearing waterways in urban areas outside
Melbourne and a range of matters relating to floodplain management in Victoria can be found in the Draft Victorian Floodplain Management Strategy, available at www.vic.gov.au/floodplainmanagementstrategy or by calling the Department of Environment and Primary Industries customer service centre on 136 186.
Your chance to have a say
The Victorian Government welcomes feedback on the Draft Victorian Floodplain Management
Strategy. Submissions must be in writing and may be emailed to VMFS.Inquiry@depi.vic.gov.au or sent to:
Victorian Floodplain Management Strategy
PO Box 500
East Melbourne VIC 3002

The closing date for submissions is Monday 11 August 2014.
You need to know
 The information you provide in your submission, or in any other response, will only be used by DEPI and the Interdepartmental Stakeholder Reference Group to consider as part of the development of the final strategy. However, it may be disclosed to other relevant agencies as part of the consultation process.
 All submissions will be treated as public documents and will also be published on the internet for public access.
 All addresses, phone numbers and email details will be removed before submissions are published on the internet. Formal requests for confidentiality will be honoured but freedom of information access requirements will apply to submissions treated as confidential.
 If you wish to access information in your submission once it is lodged with DEPI, you may contact the project team at the above address.
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© The State of Victoria Department of Environment and Primary Industries 2014
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