Lockyer Valley Regional Council, located in South East Queensland, has gotten used to once-in-a-hundred-year floods, having experienced three extreme weather events in just seven months, beginning in November 2021. When the waters rise, the Council is often first on the scene, making the best out of what resources it has available to warn residents and save lives, and using various smart initiatives to get information to locals when they need it most.
In extreme weather emergencies, as have become increasingly common in Australia in the past few years, communicating evacuation orders and timely updates is a matter of life or death.
Due to this, Lockyer Valley Regional Council has continued to progress its use of flood cameras, social media messaging, a manually activated siren that uses flood modelling software and other technologies to improve the region’s flood communication responses.
The Council also ensures a range of information is publicly available, to empower the community to make their own decisions based on individual circumstances.
The flood monitoring cameras are published on the Council’s disaster dashboard; an online resource for residents, showing in real-time how flooded roads are, and letting residents see for themselves how inundated the region is.
Lockyer Valley Mayor, Cr Tanya Milligan, said the region had endured three weather events in only seven months and was busy once again navigating the road to recovery.
“Council officers engaged the use of a range of technologies throughout each of these weather events, and those from past years, ensured the most timely and accurate communication of public information.”
Showing the damage in real-time
Mayor Milligan said the implementation of this technology has developed over time and throughout every weather event.
“Guardian software, provided by QITPlus, was first used in the Local Disaster Coordination Centre in 2013,” Mayor Milligan said.
“In addition, Council’s Disaster Dashboard, an innovation by QITPlus, was adopted by Council in 2017.
“The Disaster Dashboard provides residents with information on the activation levels of the Local Disaster Management Group, emergency news, road impacts, social media feeds from Council and other significant agencies (including emergency services, weather, Energex, TMR) and other relevant links; to ensure the most updated information is communicated to our residents.
“The dashboard also includes the link to our twelve strategically-placed flood monitoring cameras.”
Mayor Milligan said all social media messaging is entered into the Guardian software and published to the dashboard.
“Metrics on the dashboard used during an event confirms many residents view the technology as a ‘point of truth’.
“For example, the dashboard metrics for the last two events show that in the peak of the February/March event there were 94,706 page views, and 70,376 views in the peak of the May event.”
Mayor Milligan said that calls to the Council’s call centre were also noticeably lower during the May weather event, compared to the February/March event, which could be attributed to residents relying on the data provided on the dashboard and social media instead.
“We have noticed a considerable uptake from our community in the use of the disaster dashboard, however it can be a ‘double-edged’ sword, with a reliance on the technology during the last event causing issues when the cameras were not available,” Mayor Milligan said.
Flood monitoring cameras were first installed in the region in 2014, with the aim of providing:
- Visual, ‘ground truthing’, and the confirmation of information being received from gauges
- The confirmation of creek levels to determine when they become a risk to communities (as creeks change following each flood event, this becomes necessary to ensure data and messaging is correct)
- Information for residents to make informed decisions about travel, in connection with road closures published on the dashboard
Smart software predicting potential impacts
Council’s flood intelligence software system combines data from rain and river height gauges and Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) forecasts, local geography and previous creek behaviours, to provide an indication of potential flood impacts – based on preceding ground conditions, fallen and predicted rainfall.
Mayor Milligan said the Grantham Siren was installed after the 2011 floods, following a recommendation of the Flood Commission of Inquiry Interim Report.
“The siren is activated manually based on the flood intelligence received from various sources, including flood monitoring cameras, gauges, community and flood modelling software.
“It provides early warning for residents of impending life-threatening flood events with an automated siren and audio message played on activation.
“The siren is tested twice yearly, with appropriate communication to residents to ensure they are aware of the testing and how the siren is used.
“There is also an extensive network of rainfall and river height gauges across the region owned by Council, SEQWater, Department of Resources and BOM, which form a key component of our flood intelligence system.”
Mayor Milligan said that although the smart initiatives have helped the community be more flood resilient, it is important to note that no technology is fail safe and each piece of infrastructure is just “one tool in the toolkit”.
“If a system fails, there may be alternate data to help inform the community and assist in their decision making, however the community should consider the worst-case scenario, including what happens if certain data is not available when creating their emergency plans,” Mayor Milligan said.
Social media connecting council to residents
Lockyer Valley Regional Council CEO, Ian Church, said Council has utilised social media as a tool to communicate directly with residents in a time sensitive way.
“The safety of our community is paramount, and the preservation of life remains our key focus in these events,” Mr Church said.
“Social media isn’t dependent on any other media sources relaying the message, ensuring timely communication is achieved to the local community.
“While we don’t utilise traditional media releases in a disaster response, we do use other media outlets in a supporting role, such as quoting Council’s messaging in their weather bulletins or sharing our posts.
“The communications team is responsible for tailoring messaging in a way that has both impact and appropriate tone.
“It has to be balanced. While we don’t want to fearmonger, we also don’t want complacency.”
Mr Church said that beyond weather warnings and safety alerts, the Council has also used social media for preparedness messaging, while also supporting the messaging of key stakeholders, such as TMR road closures, and keeping the messaging consistent across multiple social media platforms.
“It’s all about communicating time-sensitive information that’s straight from a reliable source.”
Reducing misinformation
The Council’s team has also found that, through its team being present across social platforms, the spread of misinformation within community groups has been reduced.
“An example of this is when we communicated when, where and why police were door-knocking residents’ homes in Grantham,” Mr Church said.
“While we didn’t necessarily have to, doing so allowed us to stay in control of the messaging and dialogue swirling in community groups.”
The use of social media also allowed the Council to report on the crisis throughout the various stages – when flooding was imminent, in progress and once it had passed.
“We provided an update on the status of the Local Disaster Management Group, communicated the areas of known risk, let the community know when the immediate threat had passed and what the emerging threats would be,” Mr Church said.
“We maintained the use of these channels as we transitioned into the recovery phase, to support and assist residents to navigate the
recovery journey.
“The consistency of the messaging and the actionable information helped us to manage the expectations of the community.”
Mr Church said that the use of social media has played a pivotal role in preparing for, and recovering from, disaster events and “ensuring the safety of the community is maintained”.
