Property Level Flood Information Portals - QRA-led solution
About
The Property Level Flood Information Portals (Portals) will support the development of local government property level flood information portals to ensure the broader benefits of flood studies and risk assessments are realised, through dissemination to public, private, and government stakeholders, including support to flood emergency responses.
The Portals initiative aims to assist residents to understand, be better informed and better prepared for flood-related disasters by having access to up-to-date place-based flood risk information.
The initiative will deliver online portals, accessed through eligible councils’ websites that will enable any member of the public within the local government area to enter their address and obtain key information about flooding at their property.
The related $49 million Flood Risk Management (FRM) Program (Category D, DRFA) will support councils in obtaining some of this data.
Status
- Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) are working with the supplier and 39 councils in developing the Property Level Flood Information Portals Product.
- Eligible councils were able to opt-in for Portals before 14 December 2023.
- A complementary grants program was made available for eligible councils who do not wish to opt-in to the QRA-led solution.
- Projects must be completed by 30 June 2026.
Eligibility
The Portals work package is currently available to 39 local governments activated in the following 2021-2022 events:
- Central, Southern and Western Queensland Rainfall and Flooding, 10 November - 3 December 2021
- Ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth, 29 December 2021 -10 January 2022
- South East Queensland Rainfall and Flooding, 22 February - 5 April 2022
- Southern Queensland Flooding, 6 May – 20 May 2022
The following activities are considered eligible activities in accordance with the Resilient Homes Fund (joint Commonwealth and Queensland governments) Guidelines:
- Scoping of requirements
- Solution design and development
- Licensing, implementation, and integration
Key dates and delivery milestones
- Proof of Concept (PoC) sessions with councils on 26 October and 2 November 2023.
- Working group session with council on 9 November 2023.
- Councils opt-in for Portals before 14 December 2023.
Funding acknowledgement
The Property Level Flood Information Portals is part of the $741 million Resilient Homes Fund - a component of the jointly funded Australian and Queensland Government (50:50) 2021-22 Rainfall and Flooding - Exceptional circumstances Category C and D funding package approved under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the Property Level Flood Information Portals Iinitiative?
The Property Level Flood Information Portals (the Portals) is an initiative of the DRFA funded $741 million Resilient Homes Fund (RHF). This comprises $9.8 million for the delivery of local council portals (administered by QRA) and $200,000 to update the State-administered FloodCheck portal (to be delivered by the Department of Resources).
The Portals initiative aims to assist residents to understand, be better informed and better prepared for flood-related disasters by having access to up-to-date place-based flood risk information. The initiative will deliver on-line portals, accessed through eligible councils’ websites that will enable any member of the public within the local government area to enter their address and obtain key information about flooding at their property.
The role of the portals is to provide clear and digestible information for the layperson seeking to gain a greater understanding of the flood likelihood a property may be exposed to during an event, as well as provide access to other flood tools that may further educate them on the risk.
What’s the benefit of the initiative?
The Property Level Flood Information Portals will provide consistent presentation of information to promote community awareness and understanding of property level flood risk. It will assist in residents to understand, be better informed and better prepared for flood-related disasters by having access to up-to-date, property specific flood risk information.
How will the initiative be delivered?
The Portals initiative comprises a QRA led portal solution that will be delivered as a Software as a Service (SaaS) (hosted and managed through the supplier’s cloud platform similar to the Guardian disaster dashboards) and will be available for all eligible Councils.
Up to $250,000 will be made available to eligible councils who do not wish to opt-in to the QRA led portals solution for the development of new, and enhancement of existing, local government portals. New portal systems will only be considered eligible where they are required to support and/or integrate with existing council systems (and where the QRA led solution will not do this). Any non-QRA-solution is also required to be compatible with the QRA solution from a data sharing perspective.
Details of the complementary grant program can be found at https://www.qra.qld.gov.au/resilient-homes-fund
Which councils are eligible to take up the QRA led solution, or apply for complementary grant funding?
Funding is available for the thirty-nine (39) local government areas (LGAs) activated the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements 2018 (DRFA) in response to the following 2021-2022 disaster events:
- Central, Southern and Western Queensland Rainfall and Flooding, 10 November – 3 December 2021
- Ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth, 29 December 2021 – 10 January 2022
- South East Queensland Rainfall and Flooding, 22 February – 5 April 2022
- Southern Queensland Flooding, 6 May – 20 May 2022
For updates to the activation listings refer to QRA’s activation website:
https://www.qra.qld.gov.au/disaster-funding-activations/activations
- Balonne Shire Council
- Banana Shire Council
- Barcaldine Regional
- Barcoo Shire Council
- Blackall-Tambo Regional Council
- Boulia Shire Council
- Brisbane City Council
- Bundaberg Regional Council
- Carpentaria Sire Council
- Central Highlands Regional Council
- Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council
- City of Gold Coast
- Diamantina Shire Council
- Flinders Shire Council
- Fraser Coast Regional Council
- Gladstone Regional Council
- Goondiwindi Regional Council
- Gympie Regional Council
- Ipswich City Council
- Isaac Regional Council
- Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire Council
- Livingstone Shire Council
- Lockyer Valley Regional Council
- Logan City Council
- Longreach Regional Council
- Maranoa regional Council
- Moreton Bay Regional Council
- Murweh Shire Council
- Noosa Shire Council
- North Burnett Regional Council
- Redland City Council
- Rockhampton Regional Council
- Scenic Rim Regional Council
- Somerset Regional Council
- South Burnett Regional Council
- Southern Downs Regional Council
- Sunshine Coast Regional Council
- Toowoomba Regional Council
- Western Downs Regional Council
Which supplier is developing the QRA led Portal solution?
The contract for the QRA-led portal solution has been awarded to QIT Plus, a software development and consulting company that provides software solutions for Disaster and Incident Management with offices in Cannonvale and Brisbane and regional staff based in Cairns, Maryborough, Gympie.
Their established framework of Guardian IMS and public dashboard will be utilised to deliver the portals solution. 71 of Queensland’s 78 councils currently have a QIT Plus Dashboard. Combining the features of the Portal with the existing Dashboard facility will benefit all users and reduce ongoing costs.
What’s involved in developing the QRA led Portal solution?
| Stage | In scope item/s |
|---|
| Stage 1 – Proof of Concept (PoC) | Develop and present a PoC to councils for acceptance and to finalise in scope councils |
| Stage 2 – Discovery | Liaise with councils to understand current-state architecture, GIS and IT capability and input data availability |
| Stage 3 – Planning | Define structure for portal delivery, e.g., deployment in groups, individually, by complexity or location etc. |
| Stage 4 – Design | Define, develop and deliver the portal design in accordance with the Functional Requirements Specification (FRS) |
| Stage 5 – Deployment | Deployment of portal in accordance with agreed structure in an iterative manner: - Build
- Test
- Deploy
- Transition
|
| Stage 6 – Customer Acceptance and project close | Review, revise and deliver outstanding project documentation to enable project closure |
Will this product be able to connect to other Guardian products that councils already use?
Yes, there are some linkages between some of the layers so the same information can be brought into all Guardian products used to avoid duplication. However, the product also works as its own entity, so Councils can opt-in whether they have an existing Guardian portal or not.
Will this product be able to link to other (non-Guardian) systems/reports/mapping that councils already use?
Yes, links can be provided on the landing page and/or the in the reports that are generated. Depending on data that is available, individual property reports from this system could be linked directly to individual property reports already created in other systems.
What are the council costs involved for the QRA led solution?
There is no council budget required for the 23-24 and 24-25 financial years as the funding will cover the cost of the portal software development and the first-year licencing costs for councils.
Annual subscriptions costs will depend on whether a council already has a Guardian product, the size of the council, and the total has taken up of the Portals solution across the 39 eligible councils.
The QRA are also exploring options to grant fund an additional year or two of licencing/subscription costs for councils if the program budget and guidelines allow.
What if council opts-in later?
Opting out of this program and taking up in the future will mean council doesn’t benefit from having their integration/set up costs, or the initial licensing costs covered by grant funding.
What will be the resource demand for ongoing management of the system?
The supplier will work with council throughout the project to obtain existing data to use the layers already available. When new information is available, simple functionality is built in for Councils to be able to upload/update this themselves (with user guides provided). For ongoing maintenance, one of the requirements within the tender of this project to keep the costs and resource demands as low as possible for local governments.
What if council does not currently have flood data?
Councils are strongly encouraged to take up this system regardless of the status of their current flood data. Councils who opt-in will have something in place that they can add to once any new data becomes available (for example, the Queensland Floodplain Assessment Overlay QFAO), allowing them to always provide the most up-to-date information to their residents.
Is the creation of data to be used by the portal an eligible activity under this program?
No. The property level flood information portals initiative creates the functionality for councils to host, populate and publish property level flood information only. Any work required to create the data which is displayed in the portal is not eligible under this program.
Should I be concerned about property specific flood information impacting my insurance?
Concerns about the publication of flood data adversely impacting insurance premiums are common. However, data sharing between local governments and the insurance industry is already facilitated through the Insurance Council of Australia’s (ICA’s) Property Resilience and Exposure Program (PREP).
The ICA provides insurers with access to the raw data it receives from local councils and state agencies or departments. It also incorporates flood data into National Flood Information Database (NFID).
The availability of better flood data means insurers can fine tune their premiums, and for some this greater certainty will lower their level of flood risk and therefore lower their premiums, as reduced uncertainty and accurate data allows insurers to provide appropriate cover to protect communities from the financial impact of flood over the long term. The ICA monitors the market response to new data closely and can confirm that most premium changes are reductions that benefit residents.
Further details on how Local Government and Insurance Share Flood Risk Information can be found in the FMA fact sheet published at:
https://www.floods.asn.au/client_images/1787678.pdf
When do projects need to be completed?
The current DRFA funding requires projects to be completed by 30 June 2026.
Where can I find out more information about this initiative
