Facilitating an Appropriate Response to Flood Warnings: A Community Based Flood Awareness Program

One of the factors contributing to the reduced effectiveness of flood warning systems is that people often do not understand what the warning means in relation to depths of inundation on their particular property. As a consequence, they do not respond appropriately to the warning information they receive. This is particularly critical to upper catchment communities where the warning time may be less than 12 hours. This paper deals with the development of a Community Flood Awareness program, designed to address these issues. It has, as its basic premise, that educational programs should be designed and delivered in co-operation with the at-risk community. The paper presents the various stages of the project, the approaches which were used to engage the community at each point and the outcomes which have been achieved to date. The experience contained herein, plus the actual flood awareness booklet produced, are intended to serve as a model which other communities and/or agencies may adapt to the needs of their particular catchment area.