Queensland flood in 2010-11 : will this type of flood occur soon?

Abstract

During 2010-2011 Australia experienced one of the biggest flood events in Australia's history. Six major rain events affected large parts of the eastern states of Australia during this period. From December 2010 to January 2011, Queensland, Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales experienced widespread flooding. There was extensive damage to both public and private properties, towns were evacuated and 37 lives were lost, 35 of those in Queensland. Three quarters of Queensland was declared a disaster zone, an area greater than France and Germany combined, and the total cost to the Australian economy has been estimated at more than $30 billion. The large scale of events, the number of lives lost and the scale of the damage incurred prompted numerous inquiries and review processes. The Queensland government convened a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the issues and consequences from the flood and to work towards learning lessons from the flooding to reduce the future vulnerability of the community to this type of disaster. To manage flood, minimise the risk, impact and damage due to flood, it is important to understand the cause of such flood and, frequency of occurrence. This paper presents the possible causes of such flood, possibility of its occurrence, insurance issues associated with flood, outcome of the 2010-11 floods commission of inquiry and the relation of global warming and climate change