Beyond Flood Resilience—Rethinking Typology and Strategies for Flood-Prone Buyback Land in Suburban Brisbane

This research investigates the challenges and opportunities of flood-prone buyback land in the context of intensifying climate change and urban intensification, taking the suburbs of Brisbane City in Australia as a case study. While the floodable land buyback strategy has gained global interest, there has been limited focus on the future of this acquired land in cities. Approaching the design of flood-prone buyback land requires an understanding of the impacts and the specific manifestations of buyback land while embracing the increasing presence of water in these areas. Buyback land represents spaces to rethink the design of cities, going beyond flood resilience and addressing other climate change-related urban challenges. By combining adaptation and regenerative measures, design disciplines can contribute to generating site-specific buyback land strategies, establishing a stronger connection between these newly acquired lands, hydrological systems, urban intensification, and ecological balance to address the current and future needs of the city. The methodology involves a design-led investigation, combining analytical and speculative–exploratory methods, grounded on a site-specific approach, working at multidisciplinary and multi-scalar levels at city, suburb and site scale. This study identifies five typologies of buyback land: isolated, isolated clusters, block-clusters, park-fronted and water-fronted. Understanding these typologies should shape how we rethink buyback land in the context of climate change and urban intensification. When reconceptualized, the buyback land can redefine the flood-prone cities, by applying strategies that reimagine these areas through local climate adaptation, land repair, regeneration and resource recovery. Current and future buyback land offers opportunities for future design practices and policymakers to rethink the city’s long-term development in a changing climate.