Will levees protect Brisbane from floods?

Montague Rd and Hope St in West End is covered in flood water on January 13, 2011 in Brisbane, Australia. There have been calls for a levee to be built around the CBD. Photo / Getty

There are calls for a levee system to be built around Brisbane's CBD to increase the Australian city's resilience to major events like flooding.

Design and consultancy firm Arcadis released its City Resiliency: More than just a disaster report today.

It said Brisbane risked falling further behind other domestic and global cities unless it addressed three key issues, one of which was major flooding and stormwater surges.

The report called for a levee to be built around the CBD, from Boundary St to the Eagle Street dining precinct.

Arcadis' southeast Queensland city executive Louisa Carter said Brisbane could not become an economic capital until it confronted "some simple truths".

"One of the biggest international spotlights Brisbane had recently was when its CBD flooded," she said in a statement.

"We will never attract the scale of investment that Sydney and Melbourne enjoy until businesses can be confident that the city is resilient."

The report also called on governments to look at Brisbane's embedded energy network system and how to start to create a leading smart city.

The state government and Brisbane City Council has been contacted by AAP for comment.

- AAP