Nature-based solutions, and how they are being used to fight floods

Caroline Sullivan has both a personal and professional connection to the recent devastating floods in eastern Australia.

She recently headed up a flood research centre based at Southern Cross University in Lismore, and has a house up the hill from the city’s centre.

The floods didn’t reach Dr Sullivan’s place, but she still sees the pain they caused all around her.

“An awful lot of my friends lost every single thing they have in the world,” she says.

“It’s just heartbreaking.”

There is now much soul-searching about the best long-term responses to disasters like this, and many face the agonising question of whether to stay or move.

The community as a whole needs to be involved in “redesigning” the town so it has long-term resilience against such disasters, says Dr Sullivan, whose main affiliation is now as an adjunct professor at the UNSW Water Research Centre.

Part of that redesign could involve relocating those most at risk.

To some extent, she says, it’s about letting nature run its course, an approach pioneered by countries like The Netherlands.

As part of a program that literally made “room for the river”, the low-lying country bought back many farms for the flood plain.

“Instead of trying to control the river into channels and make it do what we say, the Dutch said, ‘We know rivers are dynamic and therefore we must leave room for them to move’.”

But there’s so much more that could be done to work with nature to reduce the risk of flooding, Dr Sullivan adds.

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