Melbourne Water bas announced a new partnership with the Bureau of Meteorology and the Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) in the wake of the October 2022 floods.
The implementation group will focus on an improved flood warning system for greater Melbourne catchments.
The agencies will evaluate options and work together to streamline flood forecasts and warnings.
One of a range of measures initiated by Melbourne Water after hearing the stories, concerns and feedback that have emerged during the Independent Review into the flood.
The implementation group will focus on bringing greater Melbourne riverine catchments into line with the rest of Australia by transferring responsibility for riverine flood forecasts and warnings to the bureau.
Melbourne Water would continue to provide flash flood intelligence for the urban settings to VICSES to enable streamlining of flash flood warnings into the future.
Bureau of Meteorology community services group executive Piero Chessa said the new precautions benefit the Maribyrnong municipality directly.
“The bureau is committed to collaborating with Melbourne Water and VICSES on flood warnings, to improve the delivery of flood forecast and warning services to the Greater Melbourne area, including the Maribyrnong River,” he said.
Melbourne Water has heard directly from hundreds of residents and stakeholders in flood impacted areas, through submissions to the Review and contributions to a special ‘Share your experience’ report documenting experiences of the flood.
Hundreds of members of the community also attended six drop-in information sessions between January and March.
Melbourne Water managing director Nerina Di Lorenzo said the project will help fast track flood warnings when emergencies occur.
“We know that every minute counts in a flood emergency. Simplifying the process of generating flood warnings between our agencies will further improve time frames and better support our community when extreme weather events occur,’ he said.
