Building in Flood Affected Areas

One of the most thought provoking articles on the Queensland floods was by Bernadette George in the SMH yesterday. She asks how did those people get planning permission for low-set houses on known flood-prone land!
She urges that the planners responsible for building in those areas should stipulate standards such as "floor levels to be at least two metres above ground level."
As she says, "Many older-style houses up on stilts are taking the current floods in their stride." And on the front page of today's SMH you see a Rockhampton family standing up to their knees in flood water, outside their house which was built on a brick plinth so the living areas are high above the flood water. Obviously their builders planned ahead, but the local planning councils in the area don't seem to have had the same common sense.
One contributing factor to the present flooding is the enormous amount of tree clearing over the decades, which has reduced nature's ability to absorb, retain, and restrict the effects of heavy rain.
As Bernadette says, "Nature is just doing what is entirely predictable." Town planners should be doing the same.