Building dams to protect Lismore from flooding would cost billions. Could nature do it better?

iStock/Getty Images Plus The unprecedented flooding in New South Wales in 2022 killed 13 people across the state, left 4,000 properties uninhabitable and damaged a further 10,900 homes. Lismore was especially hard hit due to its location on the Wilson River floodplain. In response, Australia’s national science agency CSIRO has developed a high-resolution computer model to support flood mitigation research. In a recent report, the agency outlined how building ten large “detention” dams – could…