Flooding and stormwater

Floods occur from heavy or sustained rain, and stormwater is the runoff.

Flooding and stormwater can be a risk to property and life.

Flooding occurs when water flows over land that is normally dry. This can occur after heavy or prolonged rainfall. This type of flood water is fresh and usually full of sediment and other pollutants. Flooding can also occur from storm tides, often caused by tropical cyclones or east coast lows. This type of flood water is mostly marine and salty.

Stormwater is runoff from rainfall that flows overland. It causes short-term flooding across roads, parks and sports grounds. Stormwater travels through our urban stormwater network of underground pipes and open drains. It is sometimes stored in basins and later released to rivers or creeks.

We need to manage stormwater to protect the health of our community and our waterways. It's often polluted with litter, oils, chemicals, heavy metals and sediment. As a result, we capture and treat stormwater runoff before its released or reused.

We remove stormwater litter using gross pollutant traps. Then, we can treat it using natural processes, such as wetlands and bio-retention basins.

Council's role

We manage disaster management and community education events, and work with the Queensland Government on flood risks. We also manage the stormwater network to control the runoff released across the region.

Outcome

Flood risk is managed for community wellbeing, facilitated by an integrated stormwater network that contributes to waterway health.

Policy positions

Read about council's flooding and stormwater policy positions.

Sunshine Coast Council acknowledges the Sunshine Coast Country, home of the Kabi Kabi peoples and the Jinibara peoples, the Traditional Custodians, whose lands and waters we all now share.
We commit to working in partnership with the Traditional Custodians and the broader First Nations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) community to support self-determination through economic and community development.
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