Measuring up to manage water better

NatStats Conference 08Melbourne21 November 2008

Over-allocation to Irrigation

Bushfire Recovery Impacts

Expanding Plantations

Drying & Warming Climate

Uncapped Groundwater Extraction

Expanding Farm Dams

Growing Urban Demand

The Environmental Flows Imperative

The big

8water scarcity factors

Water scarcity: A deepening problem.

Long term deficits remain across the MDB

7 very dry years for the

basin

Recent inflows into the Murray system.

Irrigation System Allocations @ Nov08.

Information to support water reform.

Prudent environmentalflowmanagement

Goodwater information

is the key

Judicious infrastructure investments

Fair pricing and equitable sharing of a scarce resource

Properly functioning

water markets

Adequateflood risk protection

Greater efficiency in

water use

National Water Resource Assessment.

National Water

Accounting.

Real-Time Status of Water

Resources.

The four cornerstones of water information to support sustainable water resources

management.

HydrologicForecasting.

The Bureau’s new water information role.

• 10-year Commonwealth program, started July 07

• $450m funding

• 110 new staff (added to 40 existing)

• Based in all States, concentrated in VIC and ACT

• New IT infrastructure

• Legislative backing– Water Act 2007– Water Regulations 2008

Our activities.

1. Set standards for water data.

2. Collect primary information from water data holders and build a national repository.

3. Provide a range of value-added water information products and services for the nation.

4. Assist water data holding agencies to modernise their observing systems.

5. Invest in water information R&D.

Our water information product suite.

AWRIS

National Water

Account

Water Resource

Assessments

Water Data Downloads

Water Resources

Dashboards

Flood Forecasting

Service

Water Availability Forecasts

Flood Design Support

Provider dataStreamflow

Groundwater

Water quality

Water use

Entitlementsand Trades

Storage

Diversions

Various spatialdata layers

AWRIS

Water DataGeofabric

Hydro DB

Climate DB

Informationproducts

REPORTING SERVICES

FORECASTINGSERVICES

Browser, RSS, XML

Dynamic

NATIONAL WATER

RESOURCE ASSESSMENT

NATIONAL WATER

ACCOUNT

Rolling annual reports

Static

The water data ingest process.

Oct 08 Feb 09 Apr 09 Jul 09

• 10 primary categories of data (~60 variables)• 8 categories of person (~260 persons in total)• Entire historical archive provided at first• Updated thereafter daily, weekly, monthly or yearly• Considerable augmentation by BoM required

The Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric (aka ‘the geofabric’)

A spatial representation of most of Australia’s hydrofeatures and their connectivity

•Rivers, Lakes, Wetlands, Reservoirs•Catchment, aquifer and management area boundaries•Water monitoring points•Diversions, off-takes, return points

•Arranged in a network topology

The National Water Account.

Questions: System status (Stocks and flows)

For any reporting unit (system)….

• How did the stocks of water change?• How much was allocated and delivered?• How much water was traded?• What was the consumptive/environment split?• How much was lost?• How did entitlement security change?

The National Water Account.

Questions: Information trustworthiness

For a report prepared by any entity …

• How can we be sure the information is correct and comparable to other reports?

• What uncertainties are inherent in the report?

• What contextual issues are relevant?– climate– demand– management (restrictions, allocations)

Water Accounting Definition of Terms.

Water Assets• Water or rights or other claims to water, which

the reporting entity holds or has management responsibilities for and from which stakeholders derive future benefits, e.g. stores in dams or rivers if the reporting entity is a catchment; allocation if the reporting entity is a water user

Water Liabilities• A present obligation of the water reporting entity,

the discharge of which is expected to result in a decrease in their water assets, e.g. announced allocation if the reporting entity is a catchment

Contents of the National Water Account.

Contextual Statement

Statement ofChanges in

Water Assets and

Water Liabilities

Statement of Water Assets

and Liabilities

Statement ofPhysical

FlowsDisclosure

NotesAccountability StatementAssurance

Statement

Possible Reporting Entities.

Nation

State

Catchment

Supply Scheme

Priority Areas

Planning Areas

Scaling the National Water Account.

National Water Account

Sub-national Water Accounts

Sub-sub-national Water Accounts

Cascading dow

n

Consolidated up

Governance and Coordination.

Publication of National Water

Accounting Standards

National Water Account Committee

Bureau of Meteorology

Water Accounting Standards Board

Water Use Estimation Advisory

Group

Publication of National Water

Account

Preparation of sub-national accounts

Advice Governance Actions

Challenges and opportunities.

• Getting the job done!

• Links to other accounts

– water in the economy

– environmental accounts

• Data standards for interoperability

• Data mining techniques

• Data survey methods

Rob Vertessy (Division Head)r.vertessy@bom.gov.au 02 6232 3501

Peter Gigliotti (IT Development)p.gigliotti@bom.gov.au 03 9669 4255

Tony Boston (Data Management)t.boston@bom.gov.au 02 6232 3503

Louise Minty (Water Accounting and Assessment)l.minty@bom.gov.au 03 9669 4542

Bruce Stewart (Hydrologic Forecasting)b.stewart@bom.gov.au 03 8638 8203

Contacts for the Bureau’s Water Division.