Light Years Ahead: the Role of Design and Survey in Disaster Risk Management, Future-Proofing Adelaide
Kelly Henderson
Colonel William Light, South Australia?s first Surveyor-General, designed a remarkable spatial layout for the District of Adelaide with great resolve, against concerted opposition. Withstanding sustained attack for his site selection and separation of the City and Port of Adelaide, he applied experience gained during military service in the British Royal Navy and as a reconnaissance officer and Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General in Wellington?s Army in the Iberian Peninsula. Modern scientific modelling indicates Light?s determination to place urban form on rising ground clear of areas liable to inundation future-proofed the City, guarding it from disasters such as dambreak and probable maximum flood. Providing ongoing benefit and inspiration, his sustainable framework set a benchmark for disaster risk management more than one and a half centuries before the River Torrens Flood Inundation Mapping Study recommended identical measures to reduce future flood damage. This paper considers Light?s disaster risk minimisation design methodology, trigonometrical survey establishing the District?s spatial layout, and details of the original triangulation of the Adelaide Plains, watercourses, reserves and Port Adelaide River.
Event: FIG Working Week 2016 : Recovery from Disaster
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