West Gippsland Floodplain Management Strategy
Flooding is a natural hazard in West Gippsland that can severely disrupt communities by causing injury, loss of life, property damage, personal hardship, and disruptions to regional economies.
The location, scale of effects and the probability of occurrence can be estimated with reasonable accuracy for a range of floods.
Understanding flood behaviour enables agencies and communities to assess the likely costs of flooding and the benefits of different options for managing the community’s exposure to flood risk.
The West Gippsland Regional Floodplain Management Strategy was developed in 2017 in conjunction with local partners including Local Government Authorities, VicSES and Traditional Owners.
The strategy seeks to:
- Build a flood resilient community through effective sharing of current information about flood behaviour
- Reduce existing flood risks through emergency management, flood mitigation infrastructure works and activities, and risk management
- Avoid future flood risks through effective land use planning and building controls that account for the impacts of climate change
- Manage residual flood risks through flood insurance, provision of flood risk information, integrated flood emergency management and incident control.
The Strategy identifies priority actions to achieve these goals.
A review of the strategy in June 2023 identified that 68% of priority actions were complete or underway. The review gives a detailed assessment of the achievement so far.
Useful links
The State Government has developed the Victorian Floodplain Management Strategy for the state. More information about this is available on the Department’s website.
