flood of ideas

Houses on stilts (works in Asia). Devise a porous concrete that allows surplus water to soak into soil and bedrock.

The Brisbane River is an ever evolving entity and should be treated as such. This site is a hub of culture, history and human activity among many other things and any minor disturbance can have drastic effects. This proposal aims to not only improve resilience but the connectivity, coherence and use of the site as well engaging the public with the river which shall promote appreciation and respect

2 and 3 story houses with power (electrics) at the top.

I lived across the park from Fairfield Gardens, the lowest house in Sydney Street, Fairfield, Brisbane. I came home early on Jan 11, and my wife and neighbour and I packed and moved as many things as possible. Firstly, upstairs, and then up the hill when I realized that upstairs would not be enough. BUT, I could not get reliable information about what high enough meant. Please consider painting tw

To flood proof Queensland… we could build houses out of cement and make inside roof the living place so that the flood won’t reach that spot. We can also make the roof shaped like a wave so that roof will make the water go over the building and back to a different spot.

My idea focuses on the river edge between Howard Smith Waves and Sydney Street Ferry Terminal. The current issue with this area is public river access. The floating walkway was a great solution allowing public river views and interaction; unfortunately it was inundated so I used this opportunity to design a new approach. There are two main parts to my design; a tunnel and UV lighting. To achieve p

Do not build in flood prone areas

The land has a memory; dormant creek beds are revived as the ground reaches saturation point and stormwater runoff begins its journey to the river. An apartment or office block is not an obstacle for nature. The consequences of building in flood plains, overland flow paths and natural creek beds have not been remembered. A river city which respects the impact of flood events and plans for the r

You cant flood proof it just plan development accordingly.

Make leading edge designed to ride over debris.

Leave control of flood gates to the professionals and not some idiot who dont know nothing form government.

Design a flood free route for an additional two lanes of the Bruce Hwy. In this way the two new lanes will provide for a dual carriageway over the total length of the current two lane sections. This will allow for two lanes each way during normal operation. During major flood events the newly constructed two lanes will allow for flood free movement of traffic but only one lane each way. This propo

To flood proof Queensland… we need to build our important buildings like houses on hills. The water wont get the houses up on high land

After the recent Brisbane floods there was an overwhelming response by the public to assist in the clean up. The co-ordination however left many eager volunteers with nowhere to go. If volunteers were allocated a response area prior to the event it would greatly reduce the confusion and allow for quick, efficient action.

In concluding his report for the Queensland Government of recommendations following the 1893 Brisbane flood, Colonel Pennycuick presented two key proposals. The first to create a ‘regulating reservoir’ at the junction of the Stanley and Brisbane rivers and the second, a range of modifications and improvements to the Brisbane river banks. He writes: “The only improvements to the river at B

Build more houses on hills

Make room for the river - Progressively redesign our urban form to.... MRFTR

It is proposed that new buildings located in flood prone areas are to be constructed as light weight structures able to float as water rises beneath them. The building will be placed on telescopic columns able to withstand hydraulic pressure to displacement and also will have tanks spread over the under croft. The tanks could store rain water and be emptied to retain air becoming a floatatio

The Flood Adaptive Queenslander addresses the issue of flood protection with the question, “Why demolish and rebuild, when you can adapt?”. Our proposal suggests building an extension onto and above existing Queenslanders. Normally this space would provide additional living area for the occupants, but during a flood would provide a higher habitable area which could be used for emergency accomm

TIPPING POINT is a concept that celebrates and embraces the dynamic nature of a fluid terrain1. It responds to the landscape as an ephemeral entity that is constantly shifting and evolving through time. It is a system that can absorb disturbances, change and self-organise to cope with flooding. This design embraces the dynamic interplay between the environmental systems of the Brisbane River an

While there was a great sense of community after the flood and many volunteers emerged to help those affected, Ive been asked to flag that some of those impacted werent necessarily happy about how the situation was handled. Im told that in many cases, too much was thrown out that need not have been discarded and that apparently sometimes volunteers didnt respect the homeowners desire to be the one

A fireproof and waterproof container in which valuables are stored. The enclosure would be available in various sizes with varying security (locking, fire rating and water rating) and methods of fitting. Perhaps economics and/or demand would dictate lower cost boxes that are fire-only or water-only suitable. The idea is that in the event of sudden fire or water ingress the box can be shut/locke

Floating City

Some streets become canals. Streets have water when flooded. Green-space when no floods.

Post flood relief worked best in highly organised, connected and skilled communities - as was the case for the highly effective Graceville Community Relief group. Massive post-disaster relief should not rely on ad hoc community responses but instead be able to draw on simple, disaster-specific information that has had prior expert input: emergency services, health experts, disaster relief experts

To flood proof Queensland… we need to build houses on the hills. This will protect the important things if it does floods on lower ground. To help stop it flooding though we also need to put holes in the ground which lead to big underground tanks. This will also stop us from running out of water or going back into drought.

Stylish, practical and deploy able housing. Modular housing that can be compacted and transported away from an imminent flood. Houses can be deployed again afterwards.

Dutch house boats on canals are floating on cement pontoons. Japanese floating airport resists ocean waves.

This machine is called a Scraper Sucker. It is a remote controlled vehicle that scrapes up mud from the floor and sucks it into a bag. I thought of this idea because I know it would be horrible to have mud all through the house and it would feel better if it was gone. It runs on batteries so it can go all through the house. It is water proof and it has a propeller also at the back. So if ther

Build more community centres higher off the ground so people can go there and not be afraid of more flooding.

Little platforms with roofs could be built on top of every building with a supply of food. Little safe houses (bombshelters) (without the bomb part)

Space ships carting the water to Mars to transform the planet so that we can inhabit that place, start all over.

“Rather than defend against slow changes by means of man- made changes in the landscape, it is less costly and more sustainable to adapt and integrate human settlement to promote restoration of larger- scaled biodiversity processes,” (Ernston, 2009, pg. 534) Today, we are facing an increasing uncertainty of repeated flooding, more devastating that the recent 2011 floods. This means there n

Stop damming waterways change building regulations/approvals

More and bigger storm water drains

Constantly moving and changing, rising and falling, the Brisbane River is hugely integral to the layout and design of Brisbane City. It is important that we respect the changing tides and river heights within our city on all riverside and flood prone areas. As a defining piece of central Brisbane, South Bank must be treated in this fashion and must be developed in such a way which it can co-exist

To decrease flooding danger, make a carriage that lines up to a high point or hill.

House with waterproof material on giant floaty (which is inflatable)

The design here is based primarily around ideas of fluid terrain, flood resilience, the tidal nature and natural systems. Tidal influences relate to the reintroduction of the New Farm Creek so that any water levels above the standard high tide level will flood the lower walkway. This creates an outside influence that will affect and interact with users on a regular basis. By doing this it will

Underground Tunnels Food supply tunnels

On the 12 October 1893, during the Queensland Parliament’s Legislative Assembly Debate, Andrew Lang Petrie, Member for Toombul, asked the Premier if the government intended to offer premiums to engineers and others for the best plans for diverting the flood waters of the Brisbane, Burnett and Mary Rivers in order to prevent repetition of flood disasters and to use the water usefully. Then Pr

Cloud Seeding

To flood proof Queensland, we need to have some very deep dams around our houses. At the bottom of the dam is a plug. If the dam starts filling up too much, we can turn the tap. This opens the plug at the bottom of the dam and lets some of the water out. The water that is let out goes through pipes to the sea.

- Clean the rivers out - No development on krown low lying land or the council faces large fines.

Keep houses light weight and be able to be raised when a flood is signaled.

The Crown Ecology House was designed over 10 years ago by an innovative Australian Engineer. The house is highly engineered, easy to erect, endorsed by CSRIO and tested to withstand cyclones and earthquakes. This house is ideally suited for flood-prone areas and can be easily erected and constructed. I met the man who designed the house earlier this year and I think it is ideal solution to h

My idea is to measure the water around flooded houses every day. It is a water sucker and a measure stick. The stick measures the water going up and down and if the stick goes under water the water sucker starts to work. It sucks up the water and some rubbish, but not a lot of rubbish. There is a camera that sees rubbish in the water and a rubbish pickerupper can get it. The water sucker puts

Cloud Dwellers’ design for the Grantham Flood House won second prize in a competition organised by the Future Housing Taskforce. Our house has been designed with two wings to make it adaptable for a variety of sites. The building fabric uses materials which are resistant to water damage, and are used in a way that is easy to clean and get dry. The building elements are either made with sandwi

My idea is a rubbish machine. It cleans up the rubbish by using a blower. First it goes to a house. Then it uses the blower and sucks up the rubbish and water. Then the blower connects to the bins so when the rubbish is in the blower it falls into the bin. After that they tip the rubbish in the rubbish dump. The Rubbish Machine helps people by cleaning rubbish that the floods have made. it

Put houses on hills and wear life jackets to keep you safe.

Rivers flood and urban rivers behave differently to natural waterways. One of the most significant flood causes in most river systems is the reduction in channel capacity caused by development and management. This slows down the release of urban water, exaccerbating the impact of the rural catchment. The Brisbane River recently flooded upstream to at least AHD 7.5 but in Newstead it was AHD 2.5 (a

Raise Australia

Good news stories for relationships that were forged out of connections that only made because of the floods eg. new neighbors who had previously been strangers ect.

I would suggest a network of canals and reservoirs  all across our country. The reservoirs can be away from cities in central Queensland/NSW/NT/WA regions. Our coastal area gets too much rainfall /cyclones etc and central Australia is dry. So whenever too much rainfall is in one area, water can be discharged into canals to take the water to any of the reservoirs and the water can be used later on

Stop building on flood plains - rehabilitate natural wetlands Stop destroying mangrove areas and building where the water courses are meant to be.

We can’t flood proof Queensland because we have no control over the rain, where it goes or how heavily it falls. So what we need to try and do is stop the damage flood water causes. To do this, I think we should build our houses and buildings so that the base is made in the same way to a boat. This would mean that if it flooded again, the houses would simply float and not get damaged.

Wivenhoe Dam stands as Brisbane’s main defence against flooding. During the 2011 Queensland floods water from the Wivenhoe catchment area spilt into the Brisbane Valley flooding the city and surrounding areas. The water had nowhere else to go. A series of dedicated catchment basins combined with levees could have slowed the flow of water into the city and protected against the rising waters.

Everybody drink more water (8 glasses a day)

Save your volunteers energy for some other effort: http://www.earthbagbuilding.com/articles/machines.htm

My idea is to pick up rubbish from after the floods. There is a truck and it has five rubbish bins at the back and it has two claws to pick up all the rubbish. The driver has controls to control all of the claws. It is called the Rubbish Pickerupper 6000. I had this idea because from the flood a lot of rubbish was swept everywhere and it was a problem for the people. The Rubbish Pickerupper 60

Have a warning system that where all residents connected to the water grid (outside river areas), are alerted, and asked to turn on all of their hoses into their gardens (calculate the water drain of one hose and refund that ammount on water bills).

Retro-fitting design and planning practices to work with what we have.

There are many ways to respond after seeing the damage done by the floods in Brisbane’s past. But it’s most important that we don’t choose to do nothing. “Hands Held High” is a phrase intended to encourage people to keep themselves dry for the next flood and to put their hands up to participate with the community in making a more flood-proof Brisbane. ...Ignore There’s nothing wors

Floating vegetable produce gardens attached to the river/creek banks (the idea comes from indigenous tribes-people in the Amazon basin)