Data recognised as key to flood response and recovery

Image: NSSN Smart Sensing for Flooding Workshop 2022.

A workshop hosted by the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN) has convened leaders from across NSW universities, industry and government to co-design innovative sensing solutions to flooding.

Opened by the Member for Hawkesbury and Parliamentary Secretary for Science, Innovation and Technology, Ms Robyn Preston MP, the workshop was hosted at Western Sydney University’s Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment on 23 Aug 2022.

Ms Preston highlighted the impacts of the recent floods on the Hawkesbury region and posed several challenges for the participants to consider for the day. She also reflected on the significance of the meeting taking place in her electorate – itself a scene of severe flooding across recent months.

Image: Member for Hawkesbury and Parliamentary Secretary for Science, Innovation and Technology, Ms Robyn Preston MP

Ms Preston went on to welcome participants, particularly those who had travelled from areas across Sydney, Lismore, Canberra and Brisbane, noting the importance of solving these issues. 

NSSN Co-Director Prof. Benjamin Eggleton provided an opening address recognising that since February 2022, NSW had experienced unprecedented widespread catastrophic flooding that caught many communities by surprise.

"The purpose of this co-design workshop is to understand the effects of the floods by empathising and listening to the stories of those who were directly involved. We then aim to combine the ideas from government, industry, and researchers to tackle the biggest challenges that can be addressed by smart sensing technologies.”

NSSN Board Chair Ms Jo White said managing floods is a complex challenge that requires advanced solutions. A network like the NSSN is uniquely placed to address challenges like this.

“One example worth mentioning is a project dubbed Where is All the Water. Back in 2019, a similar workshop was held by the NSSN on the topic of droughts – when this was a severe problem at the time. This workshop identified the most critical research questions needing to be answered and ultimately led to a collaborative project across four universities and the NSW Government.

“This workshop aims to do the same. Through the co-design session, the NSSN team will synthesise the conversation to establish problem statements. After the workshop, these will be followed up with key stakeholders for support, and a research team across the NSSN network will be formed to address the challenges.”

The opening remarks were followed by three speeches on areas where smart sensing solutions could provide impactful solutions for NSW.

Associate Professor Damien Maher from Southern Cross University spoke about the Northern Rivers Floods, not only as a hydrologist but as someone who lived a first-hand experience of the 2022 flood events. Mr Stephen McRobert, Chief Information Officer at NSW State Emergency Service (SES), provided an overview of the state’s flood and storm intelligence capability. Ms Anna Nelson, Associate Director of Strategy, Risk and Insights at Resilience NSW, and Mr Dean Betts, Regional Recovery Coordinator, presented on Greater Sydney recovery operations and NSW Resilience Strategy.

Image: panel discussion moderated by Dr Diana Day featuring David Witherdin, Angus Ferguson, Nichol Bichel, Steven Molino.

The talks were followed by two panel discussions. Moderated by NSSN Smart Cities Lead, Mr Peter Runcie, the first panel focused on the decision-making chain and featured Ms Robyn Preston MP, Member for Hawkesbury; A/Professor Damien Maher, Southern Cross University;Mr Peter Cinque, Senior Manager - Emergency Risk Management at NSW State Emergency Service; Mr Andrew Dyer, Principal Peril and Climate Risk Analyst, IAG Australia. 

The second panel discussion was moderated by NSSN Board Member Dr Diana Day and featured David Witherdin, Deputy Secretary, Commercial & Corporate Services at Department of Regional NSW; Angus Ferguson, Senior Environmental Scientist at Department of Environment and Climate Change; Nichol Bichel, Principle flood engineer at Floodmapp; Steven Molino, Founding Principal and Director of Water Technology, Molino Stewart.

The sessions were followed by a dynamic co-design session where participants formed groups combining the insights from the presentations and panel discussions to develop ideas that could be turned into smart sensing solutions through collaborative projects.

The workshop was closed by NSSN Co-Director Prof. Julien Epps and was facilitated by NSSN Environment and AgTech Lead Dr Tomonori Hu and NSSN Electrical Engineer Kimi Izzo.