Raising Cooma Levee - Concept Design and Feasibility Study

Project Type: Concept design and feasibility study

Project Location: Cooma

Funding: NSW Government Grant

What are we doing?

To reduce the impacts of flooding on our community, Council is undertaking a project to produce a concept design and feasibility assessment report that identifies a preferred levee option for Council to progress to a detailed design.

Stage 1 – Selection of preferred levee option

• Collection and review of available data, previous studies and investigations
• Utilities and constraints assessment
• Levee design options
• Hydraulic and economic analyses of levee design options, including freeboard, third-party impacts, consideration of land matters, internal drainage issues and preliminary solutions
• Community, agency and council consultation
• Assessment and selection of the preferred levee option report

Stage 2 - Detailed assessment of the preferred levee option

• Layout survey and geotechnical assessment
• Development of refined concept designs of the preferred option
• Detailed hydraulic and economic assessment of the preferred option, reviewing damages, internal drainage solutions and land matters program, including easements and/or acquisition requirements
• Preliminary Environmental Assessment
• Community and agency consultation
• Finalise preliminary levee designs
• Finalise concept design and feasibility assessment report

Latest Update - September 2025

• Work on stage two of this project has commenced
• Update the Cooma hydrologic and hydraulic models to include a climate change scenario in accordance with the latest climate change guidelines
• Update the freeboard assessment for both the 5% and 2% AEP Climate Change events based on the updated modelling
• Update the current levee design to ensure 5% AEP Climate Change immunity plus freeboard
• Develop an additional concept design for an alternate levee option to achieve 2% AEP Climate Change immunity plus freeboard
• Provide a cost-benefit analysis for both levee options (5% and 2% AEP Climate Change)