# LEVEE coverage

What is live and serving on leveemap.com.au. Counted from the published map
manifest and the licence register, not estimated. Gaps are reported with the
same weight as coverage.

**Counted:** 28 August 2026

**Status:** prototype, open for consultation, not yet for public reliance

This is the open form of the build progress page at https://leveemap.com.au/progress.
Machine-readable figures: https://leveemap.com.au/data/coverage-stats.json

Nothing on this platform replaces a section 10.7 planning certificate. The
certificate issued by the council remains the authority on what applies to a
property, including in the areas where LEVEE draws a Flood Planning Area.

## Headline

| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Studies live | 20 |
| Map layers | 196 |
| Ground mapped | 1,418 km² |
| Publishing authorities | 7 |
| Study years spanned | 2009 to 2026 |
| Studies with a Flood Planning Area | 11 of 20 |

Layers split 127 **adopted**, taken from a council's own model results,
and 69 **indicative**, digitised from a study's own map plates because
the council published the report and not the grids. The map draws the two
differently, so a reader can always tell which they are looking at.

## Coverage by authority

| Authority | Studies | Layers | Extents | Exposure | FPA | Depth | Level |
|---|--:|--:|--:|--:|--:|--:|--:|
| Wollongong City | 10 | 109 | 50 | 28 | 6 | 1 | 21 |
| Sutherland Shire | 4 | 19 | 15 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Hawkesbury City | 2 | 27 | 20 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| City of Newcastle | 1 | 14 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Wollondilly Shire | 1 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| NSW Reconstruction Authority | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Penrith City | 1 | 12 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |

### The studies

- **Wollongong City:** Allans Creek (Port Kembla, Unanderra, Figtree); City Centre (Gurungaty Waterway); Fairy & Cabbage Tree Creeks; Hewitts Creek (Thirroul, Bulli, Woonona); Kully Bay (Warrawong); LEP Flood Planning Map (May 2019, historical); Minnegang Creek (Lake Heights, Warrawong); Mullet Creek; Towradgi Creek; Whartons, Collins, Farrahars & Bellambi Creeks
- **Sutherland Shire:** Bundeena Creek; Kurnell; Oyster Creek; Woolooware Bay
- **Hawkesbury City:** Hawkesbury River; Redbank Creek, North Richmond
- **City of Newcastle:** Newcastle
- **Wollondilly Shire:** Stonequarry Creek, Picton
- **NSW Reconstruction Authority:** Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley (Bents Basin to Brooklyn)
- **Penrith City:** College, Orth and Werrington Creeks

## Layer types

| Type | Count | Share | What it answers |
|---|--:|--:|---|
| Flood extent | 114 | 58% | How far a flood reaches, per design event |
| Exposure | 41 | 21% | Hydraulic categories, AR&R hazard classes, risk precincts |
| Flood Planning Area | 11 | 6% | Where council flood controls apply |
| Flood depth | 1 | 1% | How deep the water gets, banded from 0.1 m |
| Flood level | 24 | 12% | Peak water surface in metres AHD |

## A Flood Planning Area is not universal

**11 of 20 studies.** The rest publish no Flood Planning Area
that LEVEE can draw. In most cases the council published the study report and
its flood extents, and kept the planning layer inside its own LEP or DCP
mapping, which is not open-licensed. Where LEVEE holds no Flood Planning Area
it says so rather than inferring one. An extent can be traced and a freeboard
added to it, and the result would look convincing and would not be the
council's control, which is why it is not done.

Without one: Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley (Bents Basin to Brooklyn); Hawkesbury (Redbank Creek, North Richmond); Sutherland (Kurnell); Sutherland (Oyster Creek); Sutherland (Woolooware Bay); Wollongong, Allans Creek (Port Kembla, Unanderra, Figtree); Wollongong, City Centre (Gurungaty Waterway); Wollongong, Minnegang Creek (Lake Heights, Warrawong); Wollongong, Whartons, Collins, Farrahars & Bellambi Creeks.

## How the events are named

The frequency band leads each heading. These are the AR&R 2019 descriptors
rather than words invented here: the 1% AEP sits in Rare and the probable
maximum flood in Extreme.

| Public view | Practitioner view | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Rare / Benchmark Flood | Rare / 1% AEP | 1 in 100 in any year, about a 55% chance over an 80 year lifetime |
| Rare / Projected Benchmark | Rare / DFE | The council's planning event, with its climate change allowance already inside it |
| Extreme / Maximum Floodplain | Extreme / Probable Maximum Flood | The credible upper limit of flooding |
| Benchmark Buffer | Flood Planning Area | The Benchmark Flood plus freeboard, where council controls apply |

## Climate change

A parameter, not a layer. Of the 20 live studies, 19 carry a report
with a climate change treatment in it, and those treatments cannot be switched
on and off together, which is why there is no climate toggle on the map. Where
a study folds its allowance into the planning surface, that surface is already
the projected one, and a toggle over the top would count it twice.

| Treatment | Studies | What the parameter records |
|---|--:|---|
| Folded into the mapped planning surface | 6 | The allowance is already inside the layer on screen. The parameter records which layer carries it |
| Modelled as its own mapped scenario | 8 | The parameter records the years modelled and the figures used |
| Tested but never mapped | 4 | The parameter records that it was tested, and the reported effect |
| No treatment at all | 1 | Nothing. An absent value means the report is silent |

## The modelling behind each study

LEVEE records eleven modelling parameters for each study, transcribed from the study report and cited to section and page: the adopted roughness, the software and version, the grid resolution, the terrain source, the design events, the rainfall standard, the climate change basis and the rest. They are not published yet. Every record was extracted with AI assistance and none has been through owner verification, so no values and no coverage figures appear here until that step is complete.

## What is missing, and why

**Studies that exist and cannot be republished.** Several hundred flood studies have been completed for NSW councils and are not open-licensed. They were publicly funded and they are not ours to republish. The constraint is the licence attached to each study, not the council holding it, and it is the single largest reason the map is not statewide.

**Studies processed and not yet published.** Open-licensed mapping for one further council area is processed and waiting on a publication check. It is counted nowhere above, because it is not live.

**Areas with no open-licensed spatial data at all.** For some council areas the portal carries a study report and no spatial data under an open licence. There is nothing to ingest, and drawing an extent from a report figure is not a substitute for the model results.

**Report plates queued for digitisation.** Where a council published the report and not the grids, the map plates can be digitised and are drawn differently so a reader can tell. One study of 51 plates is queued. One further report carries figure captions but no full page maps, so it cannot be digitised at all.

**Flood levels.** The thinnest layer type on the platform. Only three studies publish a peak water surface in metres AHD.

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LEVEE by Perennial. CC BY 4.0 for LEVEE's own compilation; each underlying
flood study keeps its own licence and attribution, listed at
https://leveemap.com.au/data-sources