At what stage should we bring you in?

As early as feasibility, if possible. A short flood risk screening before you commit to a purchase price or a layout concept can flag setback, detention, or floodline issues while they are still cheap to design around. If you are already at rezoning or planning stage, we can still help — we just have less room to influence the layout.

Will a floodline delay our rezoning or subdivision application?

Only if it is commissioned late or scoped incorrectly. We confirm the municipality's expected standard and design event up front, so the floodline is accepted on first submission rather than sent back for rework. Most delays we see come from unclear scope at the outset, not from the modelling itself.

Do you work directly with our town planner or civil engineer?

Yes. We regularly coordinate directly with the project's town planner, civil engineer, and environmental consultant so the floodline, layout, and services design stay aligned rather than being reconciled after the fact.

Can you help with stormwater management plans as well as floodlines?

Yes — floodline determination and stormwater management plans are often commissioned together, since municipal reviewers expect both the flood hazard picture and the post-development runoff response to be addressed consistently.

What if the site spans more than one municipality's requirements?

We confirm the applicable standard per authority up front, since requirements for design events, freeboard, and attenuation can differ between municipalities even on adjoining sites.

Do you provide construction-stage support, or only planning-stage studies?

Both. Beyond the planning-stage floodline and SMP, we design detention basins, culverts, and drainage infrastructure, and can support construction-stage queries as the site is built out.

Two people in hi-vis vests and hard hats reviewing site plans at a residential development site.

Sector

Flood & Stormwater Services for Developers

Floodlines, SMPs, and flood risk advice for South African property developers at rezoning, planning, and detailed-design stages.

Floodline determinations that unlock rezoning and building plans
Stormwater management plans aligned to municipal expectations
Flood risk advice before acquisition or at the feasibility stage
Drainage, detention, and culvert design for site works

What we offer

Consulting

Flood Risk Intelligence

Flood Hazard Mapping Beta — growing coverage

Custom Software

QGIS Plugin Development

Flood risk intelligence coverage for this sector

We are building toward national coverage. Each offering below shows where it stands today.

Production

Available today with established methodology.

Beta — growing coverage

Available for selected regions; expanding nationally.

Flood Hazard Mapping

Roadmap

In development — not yet available as a live offering.

Why developers work with us

Floodlines and stormwater management plans that survive municipal review the first time save weeks on a project programme. We document assumptions, design events, and modelling choices so a municipal reviewer — or your own town planner — can trace every constraint back to a source, rather than pushing the submission back for clarification.

We also treat flood risk as a design input, not just a compliance box. Where a floodline, detention requirement, or National Water Act watercourse consideration changes the buildable area, we flag it early enough that your layout can absorb it without a late-stage redesign.

How we work with developers

Most engagements follow a similar arc, whether the trigger is feasibility, rezoning, or detailed design:

Scoping call. We confirm the site, the municipality, the application type (rezoning, subdivision, building plan), and the standard the reviewer will expect.
Study or design. Floodline determination, flood risk assessment, stormwater management plan, or detention/drainage design — scoped to the stage you are at and the decisions the study needs to support.
Review-ready handover. Deliverables are packaged so your town planner, civil engineer, or the municipality’s own reviewer can reopen the assumptions and verify them without a follow-up call to us.

We are used to working to rezoning and planning-application deadlines, and we tell you up front if a timeline is not realistic rather than after the fact.

What a floodline actually constrains

A floodline determination fixes two things that flow straight into your layout: the 1:50 or 1:100-year (or applicable) flood extent, and the freeboard-adjusted building-platform level above it. Everything downstream — unit count on a constrained portion, ground-floor levels, whether a basement is viable, where a detention basin can physically sit — follows from those two numbers, which is why a desktop screening at feasibility is worth commissioning even before survey is available: it flags whether the watercourse is likely to bite into the developable area at all.

Detention design works in the opposite direction — from the municipality’s permissible post-development discharge back to a basin volume and outlet configuration — and it interacts with the floodline where a basin’s overflow path crosses back into the same watercourse. We size the two together rather than treating detention as a separate, later exercise, since a basin sized in isolation can end up needing a redesign once the floodline and outfall are reconciled.

FAQs

At what stage should we bring you in?: As early as feasibility, if possible. A short flood risk screening before you commit to a purchase price or a layout concept can flag setback, detention, or floodline issues while they are still cheap to design around. If you are already at rezoning or planning stage, we can still help — we just have less room to influence the layout.
Will a floodline delay our rezoning or subdivision application?: Only if it is commissioned late or scoped incorrectly. We confirm the municipality's expected standard and design event up front, so the floodline is accepted on first submission rather than sent back for rework. Most delays we see come from unclear scope at the outset, not from the modelling itself.
Do you work directly with our town planner or civil engineer?: Yes. We regularly coordinate directly with the project's town planner, civil engineer, and environmental consultant so the floodline, layout, and services design stay aligned rather than being reconciled after the fact.
Can you help with stormwater management plans as well as floodlines?: Yes — floodline determination and stormwater management plans are often commissioned together, since municipal reviewers expect both the flood hazard picture and the post-development runoff response to be addressed consistently.
What if the site spans more than one municipality's requirements?: We confirm the applicable standard per authority up front, since requirements for design events, freeboard, and attenuation can differ between municipalities even on adjoining sites.
Do you provide construction-stage support, or only planning-stage studies?: Both. Beyond the planning-stage floodline and SMP, we design detention basins, culverts, and drainage infrastructure, and can support construction-stage queries as the site is built out.