The extreme, recent drought has devastated many communities around the Murray-Darling Basin, but the processes driving drought are still not well understood. Our new study helps to change this. We threw a weather model into reverse and ran it back for 35 […]
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Labor, Greens, independents, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers, Animal Justice party and One Nation join forces in the upper house. Farmers in southern NSW say the practice of harvesting floodwaters in the north is responsible for historically low flows […]
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Satellites in space and a network of ground-based sensors could be used to monitor the quality of Australia’s inland waterways, reservoirs and coastal environments. A 12-month scoping study for the new technology is part of a mission under […]
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Water security is one of the greatest issues facing Australia, and engineers have a significant role to play in helping to meet the challenge. In a submission to the Productivity Commission’s Inquiry into progress on National Water Reform, Engineers Australia’s National Committee […]
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In Australia, rainfall forecasts are typically given with two values: the ‘chance of rain’ and the ‘possible rainfall amount. The ‘chance of rain’ value simply shows what your chances are of seeing any registrable rain on a given […]
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Citizen scientists from around the world are being asked to help complete Australia’s longest daily weather record. A 170-year-old diary recently unearthed from the National Archives will fill a key gap in Adelaide’s weather history. The uncovered weather […]
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For many people in southern Queensland, water is in such short supply that the issue is constantly on their minds, and experts are saying across Australia not enough is being done to address the issue of water security. […]
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It might be the biggest whodunnit — or what-dunnit — in Australia. More than 2 trillion litres of water — enough to fill Sydney Harbour four and a half times — has gone missing from our largest and […]
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It’s been 13 years since the Australian Government set out to develop the Murray-Darling Basin Plan with the goal of finding a more sustainable balance between irrigation and the environment. Like much of the history of water sharing in the […]
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When the clock ticked over to 2020, Australia was in the grip of a brutal drought and unprecedented bushfires. But in the months since, while many of us were indoors avoiding the pandemic, nature has started its slow […]
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Heavy rain in parts of Australia in recent months has raised hopes Australia’s protracted drought is finally over. But determining whether a region has recovered from drought is a complex undertaking. For example, a drought-stricken area may get enough rain that […]
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In the coming years, we are likely to see more extreme weather conditions. We will need new engineering approaches to manage the complex impacts on our water resources, writes Dr Clare Stephens. When we think about climate change, […]
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Goulburn-Murray Water (GMW), Australia’s largest rural water corporation, has teamed up with researchers from the University of Melbourne to improve water forecasting in northern Victoria, to help irrigators with their business planning, cropping and water trading decisions. GMW […]
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EQUITABLE use of water in the Murry Darling Basin’s Barwon-Darling and lower Darling reaches is now a pipedream, despite the state government’s release of a policy to manage one facet of it, says Australian Floodplain Association president Justin McClure. In […]
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While the UK’s Met Office is out there educating the public, BoM is remarkably coy about any public discussion of climate change. Questions have also been asked whether its senior leadership is too close to the gas industry. Sandi […]
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NSW’s main irrigator lobby group pressed the Berejiklian government to place the state’s water plans above the federal law and sought to tap water earmarked for the environment. The demands are detailed in a letter obtained by the Herald and The […]
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Since 2012, the Australian Energy and Water Exchanges research initiative (OzEWEX) has sought to foster and support communities of researchers and research users in the fields of water and climate science. This endeavour was underpinned by our 2014-2019 Science Plan and […]
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State Library of South Australia As we slowly emerge from lockdown, local adventures are high on people’s wish lists. You may be planning a trip to the ski fields, or even the nearby hills to revel in the […]
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Ephemeral catchments, where there are days with zero flow, are common in many parts of the world, particular in areas with highly variable climate such as Australia (see Figure 1). Recent research has established how the number of […]
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Reliable weather forecasts are critical for the planning and management of a variety of social and economic activities, such as water management. To make such forecasts, numerical weather prediction (NWP) models have been developed. However, NWP models are […]
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