Victorian Floodplain Management Strategy

Delivering the strategy

After the release of the Victorian Floodplain Management Strategy (VFMS) in 2016, the Victorian Government allocated $21 million to implement the strategy and develop community led, regional floodplain management strategies.

The government continued to commit to our floodplain management strategies through the 2021 budget initiative Building Flood Resilience in Victoria, with an additional allocation of $26.7 million towards Regional Floodplain Management Strategy (RFMS) priority projects and VFMS actions.

Six years after its release, some of the results include:

• completion or embedding of all 56 actions in the VFMS as business-as-usual practice
• funding of 155 priority flood projects across Victoria since 2016.

The success of the strategy is a combined effort of several organisations including:

• catchment management authorities (CMA)
• Melbourne Water
• local government
• Victoria State Emergency Service
• Bureau of Meteorology
• the community.

You can learn about the achievements made since 2016 in the implementation snapshot.

Implementation snapshot

Victorian Floodplain Management Strategy

The strategy sets out the roles and responsibilities of government agencies and authorities in flood management. The aim is to improve the evaluation and communication of flood risks to allow communities and agencies to take better-informed action when managing floods.

By encouraging communities and individuals to work with their council and CMA, the strategy supports development of regional level consultation. This helps with decision making for flood mitigation that best suits their area.

Key elements incorporated into the strategy include:

• governance arrangements for sustainably managing existing and new levees
• an acknowledgement of the value of Aboriginal communities both in planning and responding to floods
• adapting to climate change to manage flood risk
• guiding principles to support the role of CMA in land use planning
• clarification of responsibilities for maintaining flood warning gauges
• consideration of the environmental benefits of flooding.

Page last updated: 08/09/23