1.
AWRIS
Dr Robert Argent
Project Director, The AWRIS Project Bureau of Meteorology
Water Engineering Branch, Vic. May 29, 2008

2. Outline Australian Water Information
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

3. Australia’s Water Information
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?

4. Background Water for the Future
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)

5. Bureau Role in Water Information
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

6. Water Forecasting Services Branch
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

7. Water Analysis and Reporting Branch
Water Analysis and Reporting Branch
Water resources assessment
Annual reports and dynamic web delivery
Water accounting
Working with Water Accounting Development Committee

8. Water Data Management Branch
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

9. Core Staffing and Infrastructure
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

10. Activities to Date Governance Communications Recruiting Training
Activities to Date
Governance
Committee and reporting structures
Legislation
Communications
F2F, web
Recruiting
Training
Regulations to the Act
AWRIS

11.
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

12. To deliver ‘useful functionality’ in the short term, and…
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

13. Outputs Public access to national water information
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

14.
AWRIS Priorities

15. Stakeholders and End Users
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

16. Data Data Merge Tools development Commercial data procurement
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

17.
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.

18.
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

19.
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

20. Associated Activities
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

21. Robert Argent R.Argent@bom.gov.au 8638 8207
Further Information
Robert Argent