www.bom.gov.au/water AWRIS Dr Robert Argent Project Director, The AWRIS Project Bureau of Meteorology Water Engineering Branch, Vic. May 29, 2008

Outline Australian Water Information www.bom.gov.au/water Outline Australian Water Information An expanded role for the Bureau of Meteorology Development of a ‘Water Division’ The Australian Water Resources Information System An end-to-end information system End users and stakeholders Data and architecture Geofabric and products

Australia’s Water Information www.bom.gov.au/water Australia’s Water Information How much water is available in different parts of the country today and how does it compare with history? How much water is likely to be available in the coming days, weeks, months and years? Who is entitled to use water and how much are they using? How much water is being allocated and how is the security of particular water entitlements changing? How much water is being traded and to where? How much water is the environment getting? How is water quality changing? How much water is being intercepted by farm dams and various land management changes?

Background Water for the Future www.bom.gov.au/water Background Water for the Future Announced in 2007; Affirmed in 2008 budget $12.9b over 10 years to reform water management Accelerates the National Water Initiative Australia’s water reform blueprint Supported by enabling legislation Water Act 2007 Administered by Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage, and the Arts (DEWHA)

Bureau Role in Water Information www.bom.gov.au/water Bureau Role in Water Information Issuing standards for water data measurement and transmission Aggregating all water information and make it freely available via the web, with value-added analyses Conducting regular national water resource assessments Producing an annual national water account Providing regularly updated water availability forecasts

Water Forecasting Services Branch www.bom.gov.au/water Water Forecasting Services Branch Flood warning and forecasting (integrating existing flood forecasting and warning systems) Hours to days, as per current activity River/irrigation operations support 1-5 days, linked to NWP activity River/irrigation management support 3-12 months, linked to seasonal outlooks activity Long-range hydrologic modelling Years-decades, linked to climate modelling

Water Analysis and Reporting Branch www.bom.gov.au/water Water Analysis and Reporting Branch Water resources assessment Annual reports and dynamic web delivery Water accounting Working with Water Accounting Development Committee

Water Data Management Branch www.bom.gov.au/water Water Data Management Branch Data standards Expert group coordination, definition, promulgation Monitoring network improvements Planning, liaison with States, fund management Data harvesting from primary data collectors Data procurement, quality control Data management and access AWRIS

Core Staffing and Infrastructure www.bom.gov.au/water Core Staffing and Infrastructure The Bureau will employ ~120 staff to deliver a range of functions, including: Data harvesting and handling Analysis and reporting Forecasting Investments made in data storage, server and comms infrastructure, web serving and computational power

Activities to Date Governance Communications Recruiting Training www.bom.gov.au/water Activities to Date Governance Committee and reporting structures Legislation Communications F2F, web Recruiting Training Regulations to the Act AWRIS

www.bom.gov.au/water The AWRIS Project NWC funding … $10m over 2 years, under ‘Raising National Water Standards’ The Bureau is to run the project and ‘own’ AWRIS Initial emphasis on: User/stakeholder interaction Product conceptualisation Geofabric/ data relationship development Data merge investigation Architectural development

To deliver ‘useful functionality’ in the short term, and… www.bom.gov.au/water Goals To deliver ‘useful functionality’ in the short term, and… .. a ‘reliable and relevant system’ for the long term AWRIS to provide a ‘strong forward cache’ of data delivered/harvested from primary sources Provision of AWRIS analysis tools to support industry practice

Outputs Public access to national water information www.bom.gov.au/water Outputs Public access to national water information Analysis and interpretation of national water information National standards for water data and information exchange A national data source for water information Procedures and agreements to harvest water information Efficient, regular, consistent production of national water resource assessments and national water accounts

www.bom.gov.au/water AWRIS Priorities

Stakeholders and End Users www.bom.gov.au/water Stakeholders and End Users An End-User Requirements survey will be undertaken through an external consultancy. This survey will contact key end users across a range of groups, and determine water information needs of highest priority in the development of AWRIS Development of a ‘Water Regulations On-line’ system, providing key information to ‘persons’ affected by the regulations via an on-line system. Information will be tailored to the data provision requirements (eg. type, timing, frequency) of persons named in the Regulations Development of a stakeholder engagement plan for AWRIS, as a subset of the broader Water Division communication and adoption strategy

Data Data Merge Tools development Commercial data procurement www.bom.gov.au/water Data Data Merge This project has captured snapshots of HYDSTRA databases and is investigating the issues that arise as we attempt to merge these into a single, consistent data holding Tools development Backend database work for agencies AWRIS tools Commercial data procurement National Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and stream network/infrastructure information Mapping of landuse and farm dam extent Remote sensing imagery for various other purposes

www.bom.gov.au/water Architecture Requirements gathering and architecture design, including output/end user requirements, through data security, updating and auditing, to quality checking, system performance and safe ‘fail over’ in the event of a major system failure.

www.bom.gov.au/water Geofabric Definition: A geospatial (ie. a GIS aware/centric) data model that defines the behaviours and relationships between data sets in a database Consisting of: A geographic information system (GIS) geodatabase schema defined by a series of data models, developed from conceptual to logical to implementation models An evolving data model that allows for and accommodates a systemic business process for the ongoing development of the AWRIS

www.bom.gov.au/water Products A Data Dashboard will provide access to recent/’live’ data and information in AWRIS A Data Explorer tool, which will allow users to explore and download various data sets and information covering longer timeframes The Australian Dam Level Index, being developed as a ‘proof-of-concept’ tool for the ‘end-to-end’ delivery of water information. A first version is slated for release in December 2008

Associated Activities www.bom.gov.au/water Associated Activities Australian Water Availability Project Australian Water Data Infrastructure Project Australian Water Resources 2005 Water Resources Observation Network National Water Account WIRADA – R&D alliance

Robert Argent R.Argent@bom.gov.au 8638 8207 www.bom.gov.au/water Further Information www.bom.gov.au/water Robert Argent R.Argent@bom.gov.au 8638 8207