Using Drones to Inform the Community

The use of drone technology allows Clarence Valley Council to monitor inundation and provide real-time information to the community and staff during emergency events.

At many locations along the swollen banks of the Clarence River, including the Grafton and Maclean levee walls, Harwood, Maclean/Yamba Pacific Highway interchange, Big River Way, Yamba Road and Ulmarra, drones captured the scenes confronting staff and the community during flooding. The drones were used to monitor river heights at various points, check that sandbags were holding, check levee walls for signs of failure, and in one instance to fly a set of keys across the river to enable access to critical infrastructure. The aerial visuals are an increasingly useful tool to inform Council staff, whether it be about an immediate situation such as flooding, or updates on road conditions, leading to improved decision-making and community advice. Senior Information Technology Officer Doug McKenzie, along with Catchment Management Officer Greg Wilkinson, piloted most drone missions during the floods. “The drones provided real-time reporting both internally and externally,” Mr McKenzie said. “For example, we used drones to check the levees.” “When there was a reported issue, it took a few minutes to get a drone to Goddards Lane (near Maclean) compared to a boat, which can also cause issues with wake.” “For the community we were able to provide visual updates on social media to accompany road closure information, particularly for Yamba Road.” The drones are also being used to collect evidence of damage for National Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements. A lot of footage that was shot at Shark Creek Road, Byrons Lane, Loughmans Lane and Mantons Road has been submitted as evidence for Council’s flood damage claim. Council will continue to use drones to capture aerial vision of road repairs and maintenance to improve ongoing civil works and services in the Valley.

• During the Feb/March flood event, we reached 506,648 people on social media. Most popular a fly over update on Yamba Road which reached 352,876 people and was shared 1,217 times. • More than $24 million worth of recovery grants have been approved in the Clarence

Valley following the Feb/March floods (breakdown: $6,775,200 Australian Government

Disaster Recovery Payments, Disaster recovery allowance $332,179, Primary producer grants $15,904,378, small business grants $1,228,481).

DID YOU KNOW?

FOR THE COMMUNITY WE WERE ABLE TO PROVIDE VISUAL UPDATES ON SOCIAL MEDIA TO ACCOMPANY ROAD CLOSURE INFORMATION

Image top: Drone image of flooding in River St/Yamba Rd. Image above left: Community sandbagging at Maclean. Image right: Sandbagging at Goddards Ln.

HIGHEST RAINFALL EVENT

• 4% of the Clarence Valley flooded (402sq km) • 9% of agricultural land flooded (284 sq km) • 7% of residential land flooded (9sw km) • 100 residences, 9 facilities and 11 outbuildings were damaged. • 70.33km of fencing damaged The Lower Clarence experienced its biggest rainfall event since the start of record keeping in 1877, following the sizeable rainfall totals in February and March this year. Yamba’s cumulative total for February and March was 1267 millimetres with a total of 549mm recorded in February and a total of 718mm recorded during March. Yamba received 274.4mm in one day alone on 28 February - the highest daily recording for the month of February since record keeping began. On 1 March the following day Yamba received 258.2mm, for a total of 532mm in 48 hours.