Course overview
Floods cost Australia hundreds of millions of dollars annually and are one of the most deadly natural hazards. This course will provide you with a wide range of skills in flood management. You will learn the fundamentals of hydrological processes that produce floods (including climate change), a range of industry standard techniques for design flood estimation and the principles of urban stormwater management. The course follows the national guidelines for flood estimation - Australian Rainfall and Runoff. Real-life design projects are a key component.
Course learning outcomes
- Outline the physical processes that produce floods, including the hydrological cycle, extreme rainfall, antecedent catchment moisture/catchment losses, catchment features and future climate change. This includes knowledge of relevant data collection methods
- Define and comprehend key concepts related to flood hydrology and management, including risk-cost trade-offs, statistical techniques to estimate design rainfall and flows, rainfall hyetographs, runoff hydrographs, catchment storage and flood routing
- Apply and compare a range of techniques to estimate design peak flows including flood frequency analysis, regional flood frequency estimation and probabilistic rational methods.
- Apply and compare techniques to estimate design flood hydrographs, including runoff-routing methods (such as the industry standard software RORB), rainfall hyetograph estimation, and model calibration and prediction
- Apply the principles of urban stormwater management to undertake the conceptual design of an urban stormwater system by incorporating major/minor systems, hydrograph modelling, stormwater volume management and conveyance
- Outline the potential impact of climate variability and change on flood process and design estimation techniques
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The Student Contribution amount displayed below is for students commencing a new program from 2021 onwards. If you are continuing in a program you commenced prior to 1 January 2021, or are commencing an Honours degree relating to an undergraduate degree you commenced prior to 1 January 2021, you may be charged a different Student Contribution amount from the amount displayed below. Please check the Student Contribution bands for continuing students here. If you are an international student, or a domestic student studying in a full fee paying place, and are continuing study that you commenced in 2025 or earlier, your fees will be available here before enrolments open for 2026.