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Planning for a Flood Resilient Townsville

The possibility of flooding is part of Townsville life. Our city sits on a coastal floodplain and evidence shows our environment is changing in ways that could increase the likelihood and impact of future flooding.

Council’s role is to gather the best evidence to understand the risks, share information with the public and make the best possible decisions about how to maintain and enhance our city’s resilience.

We carry out research and build models to understand where flooding could happen and what the consequences of different events and circumstances might be. Based on this, we review and update our planning scheme (the Townsville City Plan) and other policies to provide the best possible guidance and protection for Townsville.

All of this is an ongoing process – we develop more accurate ways of measuring flooding, build better quality historic records over time, and utilise new and improved scientific research. Using all this, we can make more informed and better decisions about risk and our responses to it.

New and updated flooding information

Over the past four years, we have carried out new flood studies and compiled new, improved flood depth mapping for Townsville. Council is also adopting a new risk-based approach to flood planning, in line with industry best practice and Queensland planning regulations, and we have created new flood risk mapping for our city.

This information is available to help everyone make better decisions about development in Townsville – whether that’s planning of new homes or housing estates, an extension to your home or a big commercial development. Referring to Townsville’s flood depth and flood risk mapping will also help you understand what planning policies may be applied to future development proposals.

You can access these new maps and studies by visiting our flood maps and studies pages – you’ll also find more information about how research and investigation was carried out and the standards we follow to ensure the accuracy and validity of our models.

View the Flood Information Portal

Flood Studies

Flood studies help us understand how rainfall events are likely to affect flooding across the landscape. New flood studies have now been done for 10 Townsville catchment areas.
Floodplain Risk Assessment

Flood risk assessments determine the level of risk that flood hazards pose to people and property using the information that our flood studies provide.
Flood Mapping

Our newest flood mapping was completed in 2024 and is now available online. This includes both flood depth and flood risk maps, which you can explore using our flood information planning tool.
Flood Planning Q&A

Find the answers to your questions about flood planning, mapping and flood studies.
Flood Risk Planning Policy Response

With all the work that Townsville City Council has done to understand flooding and flood risk in Townsville, we now need to make some decisions about how we use this information to plan for a more flood resilient city.
Community Survey

Based on the modelling and the floodplain risk assessment, Council developed proposed ways to respond to flood risk in the Townsville City Plan – you can find out more and Have Your Say online.
What's Next

In planning for a more resilient Townsville, our work is never done. Here is some of the other work that is coming.
Flood Ready and Resilient

The planning for flood resilience in Townsville project is all about ensuring that as Townsville grows, we continue to protect people and property against flood risk. We also understand that floods can happen now and we in the community need to be prepared for them.