“As we move into 2026, change in the flooding and stormwater space is a certainty”
As we move into 2026, change in the flooding and stormwater space is a certainty. 2025 was already a pivotal year, delivering major shifts across flood modelling, planning controls, and stormwater management throughout South East Queensland. Here’s a recap of the key updates.
One of the most consequential flood-related changes in SEQ last year was Brisbane City Council’s comprehensive update to its flood risk maps. In September 2025, over 17,000 properties across Brisbane were reassessed for flood risk, with more than 10,000 properties added to official flood overlays and thousands of others re-categorised into higher or, in a smaller number of cases, lower risk brackets after detailed studies of catchments like Breakfast Creek, Jindalee and Lota Creek. This update went live in the City Plan’s flood overlay in late 2025 and is now a key reference in planning and insurance discussions.
Through the Council of Mayors (SEQ) and the SEQ City Deal program, a record $30 million was committed to improving waterway health and flood resilience across the region. These investments focus on restoring riverine systems, stabilising catchments and protecting Moreton Bay’s ecosystems, all of which are essential for reducing sediment mobilisation in flood events and improving natural flood attenuation.
In March 2025, ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred delivered intense rainfall to SEQ, leading to widespread flooding in Brisbane, Logan, Ipswich, Gold Coast and Moreton Bay areas. Homes lost power, evacuation centres were activated, and infrastructure was stressed across the region.
Council responses included:
From an engineering perspective, Alfred showed once again that structural defences must be paired with effective communication, emergency planning, and community preparedness.
While not a council decision per se, SEQ local governments expressed deep concern about the Bureau of Meteorology’s planned discontinuation of the free Enviromon real-time flood forecasting tool in late 2025. Councils, including Brisbane and Gold Coast, warned that the replacement system (OneRain) would be costly and less frequent in data updates, potentially undermining local early warning capabilities. Let’s see if this claim comes to fruition in 2026.
Logan City Council updated its flood risk mapping as part of the draft Logan Plan (LP25). The updates were adopted under a Temporary Local Planning Instrument (TLPI No 1/2024) that came into effect in March 2025, replacing older flood mapping and policy. The new mapping (included in the draft planning scheme) has been subject to community controversy and review, because it models rare flood scenarios (up to a 1-in-2,000-year flood).
Although not widely reported in mainstream news like Brisbane or Logan, the Moreton Bay Flood Viewer was updated in November 2025 with new flood hazard layers and scenario extents relevant to planning and risk assessment. Moreton Bay Regional Council are still in the process of updating property specific flood reports and mapping.
Ipswich City Council resolved to adopt the new Ipswich City Plan 2025 on 29 May 2025. The updated Ipswich City Plan 2025 includes revised overlays, including flood-related overlays like the OV5 Flooding and Urban Catchment Flow Paths overlay, which are now used for planning and development assessment across the city. The new overlays bring additional flooding extent and risk profiles to light that need to be addressed as part of development applications.
