How many flood-prone properties are there in Australia?

Because flood studies and floodplain management studies are generally commissioned by Local Government Authorities and there is no central national repository for the studies, or the data contained therein, it is not easy to develop a picture of the total flood risk in Australia. One way of representing flood risk is the number of residential properties susceptible to inundation by a flood with an average recurrence interval of 100-years. While this may not be the ideal measure of risk it is a statistic that is almost universally available. In this project we identified 300 flood-prone regions/towns and obtained this statistic for each. This allows us to compare states and towns using a common basis. Such information can inform resource allocation for emergency management organisations and help insurance companies quantify their exposure to residential flood risk.