Facing the Tide: How Can Woollahra’s Urban Planning Outsmart Flood Risks?

Established, affluent coastal suburbs combine severe flood exposure with extensive private land ownership, yet little is known about how multi-level planning systems perform when private property rights must be balanced against public flood resilience. We developed a quantitative plan-evaluation framework combining Pradhan et al.’s policy–practice–performance dimensions with the coverage and strength criteria of Hislop et al.’s green-infrastructure tool, and applied it through directed content analysis to ten state and local flood planning instruments governing Woollahra (New South Wales, Australia). Seventeen indicators were scored for coverage (0–3) and strength (0–2) and aggregated using transparent, reproducible weights into effectiveness scores on a 0–100% scale. No instrument reached 50% effectiveness (state 18–33%; local 20–42%). Performance was the weakest dimension at both levels, and the strongest instrument, the Woollahra Local Strategic Planning Statement 2020, reached only 42%. Consideration of private landowners, of innovative and nature-based measures, and of the currency of flood data was consistently weak, while statutory enforceability was confined largely to the Local Environmental Plan. The case exposes a cross-scalar governance gap in which strategic intent is not carried into enforceable, current, and landowner-inclusive practice, and we translate the findings into a framework for action to guide planners, policymakers, and coastal communities facing comparable risks.