Water availability and demand: better forecasts, better management. This project aims to improve Australia’s capability in the provision and use of water forecasts for managing water resources. The current water forecasts are not fully utilised by water agencies as they are not sufficiently comprehensive and advanced. This project expects to achieve a step change in the uptake and utility of hydro-climate forecasts through an extensive partnership of leading researchers and operational agencies ....Water availability and demand: better forecasts, better management. This project aims to improve Australia’s capability in the provision and use of water forecasts for managing water resources. The current water forecasts are not fully utilised by water agencies as they are not sufficiently comprehensive and advanced. This project expects to achieve a step change in the uptake and utility of hydro-climate forecasts through an extensive partnership of leading researchers and operational agencies of hydro-climate forecasting, with federal, state and regional water agencies.Read moreRead less
A robust integrated streamflow forecasting framework for Australian water information and management agencies. This project aims to deliver an accurate and reliable seasonal streamflow forecasting system for Australian water users by developing a flexible rainfall-runoff modelling approach integrated into a Bayesian inference and prediction framework. These scientific developments aim to significantly advance the operational capabilities of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to deliver robust ....A robust integrated streamflow forecasting framework for Australian water information and management agencies. This project aims to deliver an accurate and reliable seasonal streamflow forecasting system for Australian water users by developing a flexible rainfall-runoff modelling approach integrated into a Bayesian inference and prediction framework. These scientific developments aim to significantly advance the operational capabilities of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to deliver robust streamflow forecasts to water agencies such as South East Queensland Water and others across Australia. Accurate predictions of future water flows are of tremendous value to urban and rural Australian communities whose economic prosperity, water security and social well-being depend on reliable estimates of water availability.Read moreRead less
Closing the water cycle using land surface modelling, remote sensing and an Australian hydrological observatory. Australians live in the driest inhabited continent on Earth. Water supply and its variability have been constant problems throughout our history. This project will use space based satellites, sophisticated ground based instruments and advanced modelling tools to provide a 21st century characterisation of our nation's water resources.
Urban flood modelling at speed and scale. Frequent floods in urban areas cause damages comparable to extreme floods. This is likely to intensify with future urbanisation and climate change. Although Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) offers sustainable urban drainage solutions, there are no models that can select an optimal WSUD system to deliver on a set urban flood mitigation target. The project aims to develop a new generation of fast urban flood models and the-first-of-its-kind WSUD plannin ....Urban flood modelling at speed and scale. Frequent floods in urban areas cause damages comparable to extreme floods. This is likely to intensify with future urbanisation and climate change. Although Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) offers sustainable urban drainage solutions, there are no models that can select an optimal WSUD system to deliver on a set urban flood mitigation target. The project aims to develop a new generation of fast urban flood models and the-first-of-its-kind WSUD planning tool to support industry and governments to effectively reduce the urban flooding damages. The project outcomes are also applicable for advancing early warning systems and real-time control of floods.Read moreRead less
Development of a generic catchment classification framework in hydrology. Hydrologic models play a vital role in water resource planning and management, but identification of a suitable model for a given catchment remains a basic problem. This research develops a generic framework to classify catchments into groups and sub-groups, and will offer a significantly better way for hydrologic model development and application.
Uncertainty quantification in terrestrial hydrologic systems. This project aims to develop a framework to simulate, quantify and analyse the uncertainty in streamflow and vegetation dynamics via approximate Bayesian computation. Water is a fundamental resource, and a difficulty in water resource management is to make predictions in a changing environment. Uncertainties in predictions of natural systems due to observational and model error make this more difficult. It is anticipated that the resu ....Uncertainty quantification in terrestrial hydrologic systems. This project aims to develop a framework to simulate, quantify and analyse the uncertainty in streamflow and vegetation dynamics via approximate Bayesian computation. Water is a fundamental resource, and a difficulty in water resource management is to make predictions in a changing environment. Uncertainties in predictions of natural systems due to observational and model error make this more difficult. It is anticipated that the results from this project will advance uncertainty analysis in hydrology and help understand how different types of data and information can inform model characterisation. This will be useful in providing vital information on the attributes and extent of uncertainty to inform water resources analysis, management and decision making.Read moreRead less
Multi-site generation of daily rainfall for catchment water management studies. This project aims to develop new approaches for stochastic generation of daily precipitation at multiple locations within a catchment. Traditional stochastic generators are found lacking at daily time-steps, offering a poor representation of observed distributional, seasonal and persistence characteristics. Ongoing research has resulted in approaches for generating daily rainfall at a single location that do not suff ....Multi-site generation of daily rainfall for catchment water management studies. This project aims to develop new approaches for stochastic generation of daily precipitation at multiple locations within a catchment. Traditional stochastic generators are found lacking at daily time-steps, offering a poor representation of observed distributional, seasonal and persistence characteristics. Ongoing research has resulted in approaches for generating daily rainfall at a single location that do not suffer from the above problems. This project will formulate approaches for rainfall generation at multiple locations within a catchment. The generated data will allow risk-based management and more reliable evaluation of the hydrologic, environmental and socioeconomic impacts of alternative water resource management planning scenarios.Read moreRead less
Multi-site probabilistic streamflow forecasting for water management applications. This project will develop methodologies for probabilistic forecasting of streamflow at multiple locations in a catchment. These probabilistic forecasts will be used to develop alternate reservoir operating policies that allow operators to use current climate information to maximise water supply at controlled levels of risk. The probabilistic forecasts will be formulated using data representing the regional and glo ....Multi-site probabilistic streamflow forecasting for water management applications. This project will develop methodologies for probabilistic forecasting of streamflow at multiple locations in a catchment. These probabilistic forecasts will be used to develop alternate reservoir operating policies that allow operators to use current climate information to maximise water supply at controlled levels of risk. The probabilistic forecasts will be formulated using data representing the regional and global climate, and validated retrospectively over time. Once completed, this research will provide a means for risk-based management and hence a more reliable evaluation of the hydrologic, environmental and socioeconomic impacts of alternative water resource management planning scenarios.Read moreRead less
A Fourier approach to address low-frequency variability bias in hydrology. This project aims to develop a mathematical framework to better simulate the occurrence of sustained anomalies, such as droughts and long periods of flooding, into the future. These events increase water insecurity and result in loss of revenue, livelihoods and lives. Hydrological planning requires knowledge of how such sustained extremes will change in the future. Current alternatives for simulating such changes for futu ....A Fourier approach to address low-frequency variability bias in hydrology. This project aims to develop a mathematical framework to better simulate the occurrence of sustained anomalies, such as droughts and long periods of flooding, into the future. These events increase water insecurity and result in loss of revenue, livelihoods and lives. Hydrological planning requires knowledge of how such sustained extremes will change in the future. Current alternatives for simulating such changes for future climates are inadequate for catchment-scale planning to proceed. The project proposes a strategy for post-processing hydrological simulations of the future using an elegant frequency-domain approach. It expects to provide the tools needed to develop hydrologic infrastructure, such as water supply reservoirs, that secure our water resources for the generations to come.Read moreRead less
Scaling and assimilation of soil moisture and streamflow. Information on how soil moisture varies in space and time has been largely restricted to point-scale groundbased measurements. We will develop methods for predicting how soil moisture status evolves in time over a range of spatial scales, by assimilating groundbased measurements and satellite observations of soil moisture with streamflow observations into simple rainfall-runoff models. Extensive soil moisture monitoring will allow develop ....Scaling and assimilation of soil moisture and streamflow. Information on how soil moisture varies in space and time has been largely restricted to point-scale groundbased measurements. We will develop methods for predicting how soil moisture status evolves in time over a range of spatial scales, by assimilating groundbased measurements and satellite observations of soil moisture with streamflow observations into simple rainfall-runoff models. Extensive soil moisture monitoring will allow development of scaling relationships and validation for new satellite-based microwave radiometers. The project's outcomes will have significant benefits in relation to flood mitigation, salinity control and irrigation management.Read moreRead less