Rapid Flood Hazard Assessment for the Central Business District - Auckland, New Zealand
Stormwater Conference
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The Oakley stormwater catchment (1230 ha), is one of the most flood prone, high profile and challenging catchments in Auckland City. Attempts to analyse, identify and implement solutions dates back several decades, and until recently were banished to the too hard basket.
To take advantage of flood mitigation opportunities offered by working with concurrent large projects such as State Highway 20 and the proposed wastewater central interceptor, a renewed effort was made to prepare a high confidence hydraulic/hydrological model. Whilst providing some foundation work, past efforts were unable to adequately reproduce field observations due to Oakley’s complexity. With the availability of new software, LIDAR topographical data, and computer power, the latest model achieved accepted results through the dynamic linking of pipe, river and surface models.
The road has been long, however we now have the capability to model whole catchment solutions for Oakley alongside highway drainage to solve flooding, whilst preserving the environmental character and amenity value of the catchment.
This paper takes you on our journey of past and present attempts to develop a reliable tool from a client’s perspective including lessons learnt and suggestions for improved management of stormwater modelling projects.