City resilience holding Brisbane back – new report

According to a new report released by Arcadis, Brisbane risks falling further behind Sydney and Melbourne and global cities if it doesn’t address key resilience concerns, including flood mitigation measures.

The report, City Resiliency: More than just a disaster, outlines three resilience areas that the city needs to address, while proposing solutions, including a call to protect Brisbane’s CBD from flood and stormwater events with a levee system.

The other resilience concerns raised in the report are urban energy and the embedded network system – the consumer traps that are going unnoticed in new residential developments and automation of the city – how to begin creating a smart city.

Louisa Carter, City Executive South East Queensland, Arcadis, said in a statement that Brisbane can never become an economic capital until it confronts some simple truths and reinforces its resilience.

“One of the biggest international spotlights Brisbane had recently was when its CBD flooded. This just can’t continue if we want to become a New World City,” said Dr. Carter.

“We will never attract the scale of investment that Sydney and Melbourne enjoy until businesses can be confident that the city is resilient. One simple way to address this is a levee and other engineering measures to protect key parts of our CBD.”

The report details that flood mitigation in the form of a levee from Boundary Street to the Eagle Street precinct could be suitable for the city. According to the statement, even though this will value market infrastructure in the CBD more highly than other surrounding localities, it is the most crucial area to address first. Impacts and evacuations may result but with advanced analytics (measurable and monitored) the levee can be scoped and delivered over time with up front and real time information available to the community.

“Beyond the natural stresses Brisbane faces with storm events, we also have a concerning trend of embedded energy and data networks in new inner urban developments. These introduce a third party control in our otherwise deregulated supply market, introducing consumer risks in pricing and service,” Dr. Carter continued.

“Resilience isn’t just about natural disasters. It’s about identifying risks, developing mitigation strategies and ensuring a city can weather storms, both physical and economic.

“Right now, we have profound new capabilities in urban analytics that can assist in evaluating the immediate opportunities for improved resilience in our cities and within our populations. We should apply these new capabilities to our strategic thinking – like a fast forward button to the future that we want.”