This program is aimed at increasing students' awareness of flooding within the local area. It also provides students with essential emergency information on how to prepare for and respond to a flood event.
The program meets the objectives and performance indicators of the natural hazard project option within the NSW Board of Studies Geography syllabus for Years 9-10 (mandatory course: stage 5).
Students learn how the environment influences the community and the evolving relationship between the community and the environment. The impacts of the hazard (economic, social, and environmental) and the responsibility of individuals, groups and government are considered.
In addition we've also developed an interactive computer model which has been incorporated into this program. The computer model illustrates the impact of various people-made modifications on flood behaviour. The scenarios used in this interactive computer model are hypothetical and not representative of any particular location of Wollongong. Users can select various scenarios (e.g. building in the floodplain) and storm events to illustrate their impacts on flood behaviour. The impacts are displayed in the model using fly through animations, maps and brief explanations.
The geography kit consists of:
Teachers can obtain a copy of the answers by emailing the Illawarra Environmental Education Centre.
We received funding from the Australian Government represented by Emergency Management Australia under their Local Grant Scheme 2005-06 to develop and run this program. The Illawarra Environmental Education Centre was engaged to develop the geography kit 'Flash Floods' and WBM to develop the computer model.