There are five stages of development considered in this flood model beginning with a natural creek and floodplain, moving through to a fully developed scenario.  You can see schematic pictures of how each stage might look and a description of the development at each stage.

When you have read the information you can choose which stage you would like to look at. You should begin with Stage 1 and move through the stages in order to fully understand how the impacts on flood depths and flow patterns occur.

At each stage you can view model results that show the depth of flooding for both a minor and a serious flood.  You can compare the results back to the previous stage of development to see how the height of the floodwaters has changed.

In Stage 5, you can also look at how the flood levels and depths might change if the main structures in the model were blocked.

Before you look at the results of the model you can answer some questions about flooding and in particular, predict the changes to flooding that you would expect to see.  You can then view the flood model predictions and compare these with your own predictions.  When you are happy that you understand the results of one stage, please move on to the next stage.

Some of the terminology used in the Interactive Flood Model is:

• Flood Level - This is the height (in metres) of the surface of the floodwater above a datum.  The datum is usually the Australian Height Datum (AHD), which is similar to the average water level of the sea (i.e. mean sea level).
• Velocity – The speed (in metres per second) of the moving floodwater.  Velocities are often shown as different sized arrows to indicate the direction of movement.
• Depth: - The depth of the floodwater.