Sam Kernaghan, Resilience Program Director, Committee for Sydney: 

“This is a step in the right direction for flood resilience in Sydney. 

The report recommends future residential development in the Hawkesbury Nepean Valley be increasingly discouraged in favour of development around train stations in flood-safe areas.

It’s really important the report has recognised planning for floods needs to include consideration of climate risks, and that we actually have minimal ability to predict floods.

These findings reinforce the principle identified in the report that new buildings must be out of harm’s way and made more resilient to the impacts of floods and other extreme weather events.”

See the Committee’s report on Rethinking Station Precincts here: https://sydney.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Committee-for-Sydney-Rethinking-Station-Precincts-May-2022.pdf

The flood inquiry report is here: https://www.nsw.gov.au/nsw-government/projects-and-initiatives/floodinquiry

Two key recommendations from the report:

– Future residential development in the Hawkesbury Nepean Valley should be increasingly discouraged in favour of rapid development near train stations and other facilities in flood-safe areas

– ensure strategic land use frameworks enable higher density flood resilient precincts to locate more development at or above the PMF (probable maximum flood) and use a higher flood planning level to avoid catastrophic costs from extreme flooding, as well as deliver cost-effective controls for individual structures.