Draft State-wide Flood Hazard Code Amendment

Updating South Australia’s flood hazard mapping and planning rules

***UPDATE***

Read the City of Burnside's submission to this engagement as saved in the Document Library.

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Have your say on the draft State-Wide Flood Hazard Code Amendment, which aims to guide how development should address flood risk and be designed to keep people and property safe from floods.

The State Planning Commission has prepared the draft State-Wide Flood Hazard Code Amendment to update flood hazard planning rules across the state, based on new and updated flood studies and modelling.

The draft code amendment focusses on addressing flood hazards along water courses, such as creeks and rivers (riverine flooding), and due to surface water (pluvial flooding).

The Planning and Design Code contains three ‘overlays’ that set out planning rules to guide development in areas with a flooding hazard:

• the Hazards (Flooding) Overlay, which applies to areas that can be subject to an intolerable flood risk, where development should generally be avoided.
• the Hazards (Flooding – General) Overlay, which applies to areas with tolerable flood risk and seeks actions such as raising floor levels to mitigate flood risk.
• the Hazards (Flooding – Evidence Required) Overlay, which applies to areas where there is no suitable flood study data so precautionary actions are required, such as ensuring the floor levels of new homes are raised above the kerb.

The draft State-Wide Flood Hazard Code Amendment proposes updates to these overlays, focussing on three aspects:

• more consistent and updated mapping: using the latest flood studies and data to update flood hazard overlay mapping based on more contemporary standards and modelling, and applying the three flood hazard overlays more consistently across the state.
• improved planning rules: introducing definitions and enhanced policies to make development assessments clearer and more consistent, and to align with national guidance.
• faster process for future mapping updates: enabling a streamlined process to update flood hazard overlay mapping in the future, as more contemporary flood studies and data become available.

Planning rules to address flood hazards along the River Murray and coastal areas are in separate overlays and are not being changed through this code amendment.

Have your say