Designing shadow disasters: Hidden knowledge politics in floodplain management in regional Victoria and New South Wales

Since the onset of colonisation in Australia, floodplain management has aimed to fully control water through technocratic interventions like dredging, irrigation and levees. This approach has degraded important water sites such as the Murray Darling Basin, increased flooding risk in vulnerable areas and marginalised community involvement. The consequences of this settler-colonial governance for those affected by flooding, especially in post-disaster reconstruction, remains an important but underexplored issue.

This community-based, collaborative research aims to understand community experiences of settler-colonial governance strategies in floodplain management.

This project is will:

1. Identify and utilise ways to promote more holistic and inclusive planning, design and recovery from flooding that is sensitive to water-society relationships and values local knowledges. 
    
2. Challenge and explore new governance systems that involve the role of community and Indigenous knowledge systems within the planning and design of post-disaster reconstruction. 
    
3. Enhance understanding experiential dimensions of knowledge production can inform improvements to local community engagement strategies for post-disaster reconstruction and floodplain management. 
    
4. Use participatory mapping to produce tangible responses for risk communication within the landscape and will continue to build capacity building and resilience to flooding by communicating risks experienced within the landscape.