COUNCIL has secured nearly $150,000 in funding to fine-tune its approach to preventing future flooding in the city.
The state government grant has been offered on the condition council supplement a further $74,000 to the project.
Council engineering design and approvals manager Graham Gordon said the studies made possible by the funding would be a “confidence tool” for the community to lobby governments for flood mitigation solutions.
“These investigations will give us knowledge we didn’t have before – there are lots of people with expertise across different areas so we’ll be able to put all of them together and put it into a model,” Mr Gordon said.
“We’ll be able to model scenarios of where floodwater will go and what impact any changes we make will have.
“That will give us and other authorities like the SES the knowledge we need for all the decisions we have to make if there is another situation like we had in March.”
The majority of the funding will be used for a review of the risk management plan for Main Drain J, which was only approved in October 2011.
It will incorporate an investigation of the Mirrool Creek catchment to determine ways to reduce the intensity of future overland flooding.
More than $60,000 will go toward a floodplain management review of the CBD, which will include a mitigation plan and identification of “hotspots” for emergency services to focus on in a future disaster situation.
The remainder of the money will fund a similar study at Lake Wyangan.
Mr Gordon said community consultation would play a big part in the investigations.
“We’ll consult with property owners within the catchments and tap into as much local knowledge as we can,” he said.
The completed studies will be used to apply for further grants from the state and federal governments to put practical mitigation measures in place.