Flood Design Guide
This design guide provides information for the Sunshine Coast community to improve flood resilience through design.
Flood Resilient Design Guide
The Sunshine Coast Flooding and Coastal Resilience Design Guide assists the community to make more informed lifestyle and investment decisions.
Building smarter for future floods and storms
The Sunshine Coast Flooding and Coastal Resilience Design Guide provides practical advice for homeowners, renovators, builders and designers on how to plan, design and renovate homes that are better prepared for flood and storm events.
Developed with resilience specialists JDA Co, the Guide helps residents understand their property's risks and outlines practical design strategies, materials and construction approaches that can reduce damage, improve recovery times and support long-term resilience.
Flood risk can come from rivers, creeks, overland flow, stormwater and coastal storm tides, meaning many properties that can potentially be impacted are not located near waterways.
The Guide translates a complex process of understanding the risk that may exist on a property into practical, easy-to-understand design solutions.
On 17 September 2026, Sunshine Coast Council endorsed the publication of The Guide online:
Sunshine Coast Flooding and Coastal Resilience Design Guide - For Property Owners and Designers of Dwelling Houses and Dual Occupancies (PDF, 31 MB) (Version 1.0 August 2026)
Why flood-resilient design matters
Flood resilience is about planning ahead rather than reacting after a disaster, reducing property damage, disruption and recovery costs.
Investing in resilient design can reduce flood damage, shorten recovery time, lower repair costs and reduce reliance on insurance.
The best approach to flood resilience is to avoid flood and storm damage from occurring in the first place. The Guide demonstrates how this can be achieved for new builds and renovations.
Understanding a property's specific flood and stormwater risks is the critical first step when planning a new build or renovation.
Council's updated flood and stormwater mapping provides improved information to help homeowners, builders and designers make informed decisions earlier in the design process.
Access online flood mapping via Council’s website via MyMaps.
History
Two flood resilience guidelines were previously prepared for the Sunshine Coast Planning Scheme 2014 developed to assist the community to improve their property's flood resilience:
- guideline for improving flood resilience for existing development (PDF, 11MB)
- guideline for improving flood resilience for new development (PDF, 2MB).
Aspects of these guidelines were superseded by 2019 guidance on flood resilient homes prepared by the Queensland Reconstruction Authority.
Flood Resilient Building Guidance for Queensland Homes (February 2019) (PDF, 36MB)
More information
Strengthen your home for flood. Hear real-life stories from homeowners who have adapted their homes using additional design guidance from the Queensland Government’s Get Ready website.
For more information about this guide, please email [email protected].