Ecological riverine floodplain zoning : Its application to rural floodplain management in the Murray—Darling Basin

Floodplain zoning is a procedure used to identify areas of varying flood hazard and has been used extensively as a precursor to land use regulation, a non-structural floodplain management measure. Conventional floodplain zoning is based on hydraulic and hydrological analytical techniques, but its application to riverine floodplain environments of the Murray—Darling Basin of Australia is problematic. This paper develops and applies an alternative, ecological approach to floodplain zoning, using biophysical features as flooding indicators. Three zones are identified: low-risk floodplain land, flood-prone land (which includes two sub-categories) and floodway land. Land use policies, based on a land use constraint principle, are then developed for each floodplain zone.