Decision support: Informing flood management

This paper describes the development of a new flood management decision support system which significantly improves the ability of flood practitioners to: 1) Identify adaptation and mitigation solutions to flood inundation; 2) Facilitate objective community flood risk management consultation and 3) Justify floodplain management decisions in a transparent and structured manner to all stakeholders. The nature of a Decision Support System (DSS) and its place in floodplain management is described and it is shown how a DSS can be used as a practical tool to identify options available to flood management practitioners. The new flood management system presented in this paper is shown to have the ability to assist rigorous, transparent and auditable decision making while also facilitating community consultation.