2022 Victorian flood event: Water and Catchments review

The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action’s (DEECA) Water and Catchments Group (WCG), has specific roles and responsibilities under the State Emergency Management Plan (SEMP) as the control agency for class 2 water emergencies, such as dam safety and water and wastewater disruption.

Following the floods DEECA Water and Catchments Group appointed independent risk and resilience analysts, Resilient Services, to conduct an After Action Review (AAR) from January 2023 through to June 2023 to support DEECA’s commitment to learning and improving our departmental responses to flood events.

After Action Review overview

AARs are used to debrief following an event or a project, like the large-scale flooding that occurred in Victoria in 2022. They are used to understand what took place, why things happened, and how to improve on it for future events or projects.

Benefits of AARs include innovation, better decision making, identification of past mistakes, improvement of collaboration between internal and external stakeholders and improvement in responding to future events.

In December 2022, Resilient Services was appointed to plan and facilitate the Victorian Flood Event 2022 AAR – DEECA Water Emergency Operational Response (Round 1). This included 16 workshops from January to March 2023, focusing on control and support arrangements, agency collaboration, and resource management during the flood event. Between the 31 May and 28 June 2023, additional AAR’s took place across 12 thematic areas (round 2).

The workshops were designed to encourage open discussion about the experiences and thoughts of participants and the workshops was based on the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR) Lessons Management Handbook, 2019. The AAR utilised three targeted open questions to address the predetermined topics in framing responses. These 3 questions were:

What went well?
What did not go so well?
With the benefit of hindsight, what could we do better next time?

Executive summary

The executive summary of the After Action Review report is available below, alongside questions and insights about the review.

Key questions and insights

Why were After Action Reviews conducted following the 2022 Victorian floods?

During flood events the water sector plays a key support role to the Victorian State Emergency Services (VICSES) who is the control agency.

DEECA WCG leads the Victorian Floodplain Management Strategy, invests in flood mitigation infrastructure and warning systems, manages the FloodZoom platform, and coordinates the water monitoring partnership for flood gauges.

Victoria’s water sector, being the water corporations and water catchment authorities, also have their own roles and responsibilities in flood management.

The DEECA Water team was active in the State Control Centre (SCC) for 40 days providing control and support roles such as Deputy State Response Controller – Water and Water Services Specialists, 24 staff contributed to a total of 191 shifts while the Water team was activated during the 2022 Victorian floods.

After Action Reviews (AAR) are used to debrief following an event or a project like the large-scale flooding that occurred in Victoria in 2022. They are used to understand what took place, why things happened, and how to improve on it for future events or projects. Benefits of AARs include innovation, better decision making, identification of past mistakes, improvement of collaboration between internal and external stakeholders and improvement in responding to future events.

How were the After Action Reviews conducted?

Following the floods in October 2022, the DEECA WCG appointed independent risk and resilience analysts, Resilient Services, to conduct AARs to support DEECA’s commitment to learning and improving our Departmental responses to flood events.

Two rounds of AARs were conducted between January and July 2023, which included 29 AAR stakeholder workshops across 13 policy/operational areas:

Control and support arrangements
Storage Managers’ Actions
Waterway Management
Levee Policy
Dam Safety
Asset Management
Sustainable Irrigation Program
Flood Intelligence
River Gauges
Floodplain Management Strategy
Blackwater and Fish Deaths
Blue Green Algae
Residual Water

The AAR used 3 targeted open questions to address the predetermined topics in framing responses including what went well, what did not go so well and with the benefit of hindsight, what could be done better next time. The feedback from participants was then used to prepare the AAR report for use internally at DEECA to either build on or improve current practices for future flood events.

Workshops were held online, and the format was designed using the AIDR Lessons Management Handbook, 2019, to encourage open discussion about the experiences and thoughts of the collective group of participants, as well as the individuals within the groups.

Three targeted open-ended questions were asked around a range of key areas covering response arrangements, policy and planning, funding, communications and community for each of the themes of workshops. These three questions were:

What went well?
What did not go so well?
With the benefit of hindsight, what could we do better next time?

Following the workshops Resilient Services analysed the feedback and prepared a final report to capture themes and key learnings.

Who participated in the After Action Reviews?

Over 150 participants from more than 30 agencies contributed, including:

DEECA, water corporations, and catchment management authorities
Local councils, VicSES, and Victoria Police
Parks Victoria, the Victorian Fisheries Authority, and other agencies

What were the key learnings from the After Action Reviews?

Resilient Services found that the collaboration between agencies, and the dedication of those agencies and their people, to respond during events was evident with commitment displayed towards discharging the legislative responsibilities.

Other strengths shown across the AAR’s and areas that are working well include:

The willingness of staff and other agencies to participate in AARs, demonstrating a strong commitment to continuous improvement.
WCG coordination and collaboration with control and support agencies throughout the event was significant.
Safety, fatigue management and employee wellbeing were consistently prioritised throughout the event by WCG management and its staff.
WCG’s continued demonstrable commitment to training exercises for leads in emergency management response and best practice emergency management in terms of cooperation, efficiency and discharging its regulatory responsibilities.
The FloodZoom platform provided flood intelligence to the state and aided in flood monitoring and management.
Long-term commitment of organisations and individuals coming together outside of flood events to build relations, knowledge and share ideas.

Resilient Services also noted that there were some areas that could be improved and that the quest to continuously do better was evident during workshops as opportunities for improvement were the focus of participants, with much discussion on methods to optimise responses in the future.

The key learnings for improvement included:

Review policy and procedure of the use of local agency Emergency Management Liaison Officers (EMLOs) in the Incident Control Centres (ICC)/Regional Control Centres (RCC) to facilitate effective collaboration between the Incident Controllers and other agencies in the emergency response frameworks.
Review and update the State Emergency Management Plan (SEMP) to articulate the roles and responsibilities for residual water management in flood response and recovery that acknowledge land use and the agency’s’ existing stakeholder relationships.
Clarify when fish death management falls within or is elevated to an Incident Management Team response with an incident management team structure to provide clarity on when it is a state coordinated event in Water portfolio versus a local agency business as usual event.
DEECA’s procedures for communications and timely approvals presented delays at times for agencies looking to provide information to the public.
Prioritise and identify all critical state infrastructure at the local, regional and state levels, including water treatment, and wastewater treatment facilities in emergency management plans. The ability to elevate the profile of water alongside power and energy concerns are crucial for efficient response.
Clarity of the responsibility of privately owned dams (or lack thereof), including provision of technical and safety advice.
Levee management and ownership clarification.

How are the learnings in the After Action review being addressed?

DEECA is using AAR insights to improve emergency procedures, clarify roles, and update strategic plans like the Victorian Floodplain Management Strategy.

Why has DEECA published the After Action Review Report Executive Summary?

DEECA has published the Executive Summary of this report on its website to ensure that key learnings are shared with the public while allowing the principles of AARs to remain intact for staff and agencies for future processes.

Publication of the full AAR report would undermine the principles of an AAR, which asks staff and stakeholders to provide frank and honest feedback.

Consequently, publishing the full report may undermine trust in this process for future emergency events and AARs.

Page last updated: 30/12/24