The challenge
Flooding in Australia
Flooding across Australia can have significant consequences for infrastructure, people and communities. Data61 conducts research on causes of flooding, their impact and how to prepare or respond.
Our response
Adaptation options for catchment and coastal flood modelling
Cities Flood Adaptation Solutions Tool (CFAST) is an integrated adaptation framework for cities at risk from coastal inundation and flooding events and can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of hard and soft adaptation measures.
The C-FAST framework provides hydrodynamic and coupled hydraulic modelling capability with analysis tools for adaptation options.
C-FAST can be used for both catchment and coastal flood modelling, including sea level rise, for present and future flooding. The capabilities of C-FAST have been used in several flood mitigation projects for cities across Australia
The results
The effective components of C-FAST
The C-FAST software has many components that assists in its effectiveness. Its flexible, modular design allows for any combination of extreme rainfall, storm surge, catchment flooding and sea level rise.
C-FAST is a complete turn-key solution. The software is comprised of pre-processing tools for cleaning up host terrain and bathymetry data, the measurement of depth of water in oceans, seas or lakes.
This data can then be used for hydrodynamic modelling, the study of fluids in motion. The C-Fast solution post-processing tools are then used for analysing and visualising of the simulation results.
The C-FAST software is easy to use and has a front end designed specifically to be used by those making the decisions around adaptation options in the longer term (planning departments) and short term (emergency management response). It is also a customised and modular solution which has been developed based on client needs and provides maximum flexibility. It is powered by the CSIRO Workspace workflow engine, which enables rapid development of underlying algorithm compositions.
C-FAST is compatible with other platforms, it is integrated with existing geospatial platforms including GDAL.