Ongoing flood warning system improvements by the Otago Regional Council across the region in recent years has included a rainfall station installed on the Rock and Pillar Range near Middlemarch.

The regional council’s flood warning system has been operating for the past 25-30 years, and the Safety and Resilience Committee was updated on progress last week.

A report by manager natural hazards Jean-Luc Payan outlined how the service worked during a heavy rainfall event, including having a 24/7 duty flood officer on-call to monitor that.

Rainfall observations and short-term predictions from the weather radar installed in Otago in 2020 were used to inform the flood warning service.

In July 2024, the Civil Defence Emergency Management Group also formally requested the Minister of Transport to improve the radar coverage in the region by requesting support in investigating the feasibility of extending weather radar coverage to encompass Central Otago

and Queenstown-Lakes. 

“This will strengthen our ability to safeguard communities and enhance our resilience against weather-related risks.”

The flood warning system not only provided information to farmers, business owners, emergency management services and infrastructure managers, but road users throughout Otago as well.

The information predicted lake and river levels and flows and the identification of likely affected areas and consequences.

The Otago Regional Council is spending an extra $150,000 a year over the next three years to improve its flood warning systems across the region. FILE SHOT.

Other improvements underway or planned in the coming years included improvements to the warning communication system to ensure better accessibility to the flood warning service, and more extensive assessment of the consequences of heavy rainfall events in the region. 

“This will include flood hazard characteristics (such as extent, depth and velocities) assessments considering a range of weather scenarios, including maximum credible events.”

The report said the improvements were based on post-flood event debrief and review sessions with affected communities and groups and organisations involved in the response to the event. 

Annual costs of the service were currently $299,000 and further flood warning improvement work included in the 2024-34 Long-Term Plan was $150,000 per year for the next three years.

Staff told the meeting that satellite technology was getting better all the time and making quite a big improvement in the level of service that sites could provide.

“We’ve also made significant upgrades to the way information is presented online,” such as pictorial maps and the scale and depth of those, which were more detailed as well.

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