The big question for what happens next for the city of Brisbane and for many cities worldwide is the role of climate change in flood events.
The previous big flood event in the city was in 1974. Since then a dam has been built as flood mitigation and in 2011 it has protected the city from more severe flooding.
However, with climate change, the expected frequency and severity of flooding could be expected to increase. So yes, a competition too – looking at the bigger picture – to design floodable spaces and places for cities would be a great contribution to urban flood defences and urban design.
I have done a post on Waffle Landscape Planning as a suggstion re how to answer the Big Question. I like the idea of a Flood Landscapes Design ‘Competition’ but wonder if it should be more of a Co-Operation than a Competition?
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Yes. Do you think we should consider a competition for i) the house 2) the property 3) the street 4) the suburb 5) the city 6) the region and 7) the state (even country as our flooded river systems extent beyond the state boundaries) [ http://www.news.com.au/queensland-flood-waters-may-flow-to-parched-murray-darling-basin/story-e6freon6-1225980642300?from=public_rss ] and give the entrants the opportunity to consider at which scale they would like to contribute ideas?
Oh, and perhaps one for the echidna?
ps. Alhtough the first detailed description of the echidna was published in England in 1792 here is a little more information. [ http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Animals/Archives/2003/The-Enigma-of-the-Echidna.aspx ]
Yes, I think there should be many sections to the competition and many sections to the manual (including echidna). It looks as though flood-prevention and water-conservation need to become major landscape planning objectives for Australia, as they are in Holland and will be in all the world’s flood-prone cities. See http://www.rms.com/Reports/OECD_Cities_Coastal_Flooding.pdf
Perhaps we could select two developed (ie. Hamburg and Brisbane) and two developing (ie Tianjin etc)cities and a heritage city like Venice for a choice of locations/flood scenarios?