$100k Review of Flood Mapping
Logan City Council has voted to commission a $100,000-plus independent review of its controversial draft flood mapping, after months of angry backlash from ratepayers who say the modelling is inaccurate, harming property values and driving up insurance premiums.
The review, which Logan chief executive Darren Scott expected to cost $100,000, was given the green light despite repeated warnings that it could be wasting ratepayer money and may ultimately deliver the same mapping result and leave homeowners waiting until next year to learn if the maps will change.
At a special council meeting, the councillors approved a motion to put the review out to tender for a specialist consultant, who has never worked on the city’s highly unpopular existing flood studies, rejecting an earlier proposal to re-use engineers involved in past modelling.
Mayor Jon Raven told the chamber the review was driven by unprecedented community pressure.
He said residents had repeatedly questioned whether the data was correct, whether the mapping was “ground-truthed”, and whether extreme-event predictions were realistic.
“Overwhelmingly, people have told me they want an independent review of the flood maps,” he said.
“They ask for this because they do not trust the current mapping compared to their lived experience. They’re sceptical that it is fit for purpose.”
The study will focus on the Logan and Albert Rivers Flood Study, including the probable maximum flood (PMF) and one-in-2000-year predictions that residents argue are ridiculous and unnecessarily inflating insurance premiums.
Councillor Mindy Russell, who voted against the review, warned it may not deliver the outcomes homeowners are hoping for and said the results would still be computer driven not based on site surveying.