In the lead up to the NSW state election, UNSW’s Professor Richard Kingsford outlines what needs to be done to protect the Murray-Darling rivers and the communities that rely on them. Rivers running dry, algal blooms, more fish […]
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The recovery in the health of major river systems such as the Barwon-Darling is likely to be delayed well after the return of good rainfall because of policy changes under which irrigators will get the first right to […]
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Coupling between the land surface and the atmosphere can affect how much and when it rains. One way coupling has been uncovered in nature is through identifying when the amount of rainfall has been affected by how wet […]
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In predicting the trajectory of future climate, water and ecosystems, we can no longer ignore the many ways in which human feedbacks modify our natural systems. The 5th national OzEWEX workshop explored how well we understand stores and […]
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People have used moving water to create energy for thousands of years. Today, pumped hydro is the most common form of grid-connected energy storage in the world. This technology is in the spotlight because it pairs so well […]
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If you want a salutary example of the taxpayers’ money that can be wasted and the harm that can be done when governments yield to the temptation to prop up declining – and, in this case, environmentally damaging […]
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Most people imagine that as temperature rises, evaporation increases. While that is true under specific circumstances, in general this is not the case. This is because when evaporation increases it causes a surface to cool and thereby reducing […]
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The AUSWOT Working Group (auswot.org) is a consortium of researchers and stakeholders that aims to develop capacity within the Australian scientific community to capitalise on the next generation of Earth-observing satellites, specifically the NASA/CNES Surface Water Ocean Topography […]
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As the planet warms, subtropical regions of the Southern Hemisphere, including parts of southern Australia and southern Africa, are drying. These trends include major drought events such as Cape Town’s “Day Zero” in 2018. Climate projections suggest this […]
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Convective organisation refers to convective systems that cover a larger area and last longer than an individual convective cell. Tropical extreme rain is closely related to convective organisation, but it is unclear how it influences extreme rainfall and […]
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The nation’s pre-eminent science agency has cast doubt on the environmental benefits claimed under the Morrison government’s main climate policy, raising concerns Australia is overstating its contribution to the fight against global warming. Despite concerns over the scheme, […]
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The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the dominant and most consequential climate variation on the planet. Answering the question of how ENSO may change under greenhouse warming has been plagued for decades by a persistent lack of inter-model […]
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Another summer, another drought. Sydney’s water storages are running on empty, and desalinisation plants are being dusted off. Elsewhere, shrunken rivers, lakes and dams are swollen with rotting fish. Governments, irrigators and environmentalists blame each other for the drought, or just blame […]
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New research in Nature Climate Change suggests droughts may not increase as a result of climate change. This finding resulted from researchers investigating an apparent climate model contradiction that saw climate change projections of the 21st Century produce […]
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‘If you think this is bad,’ say locals of recent mass fish kills, ‘just wait until the Menindee Lakes project goes ahead’ On the banks of the Darling, near Menindee, two grown men are fighting back tears. It’s […]
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Sydney households will have up to $35 added to their annual water bills to cover the restart of the city’s desalination plant, the Berejiklian government says. On Tuesday, Sydney and Wollongong’s dams were 60.3 per cent full, marginally […]
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Water bird numbers at the world famous Menindee Lakes, near the site of this year’s massive fish kill, are in long-term decline, amid an ongoing failure to manage water levels to match weather fluctuations, leading ecologist Richard Kingsford […]
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“Nice hydrographs! Can you now compare your model to ‘that other hydrology groups model’?” The phd student suppresses the urge to roll her eyes. Her supervisor is asking her to go back into code-hell. That other model is […]
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The deaths of a million of fish in the lower Darling River system over the past few weeks should come as no surprise. Quite apart from specific warnings given to the NSW government by their own specialists in […]
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A million fish have died in the Murray Darling basin, as oxygen levels plummet due to major algal blooms. Experts have warned we could see more mass deaths this week. Fingers have been pointed at poor water management […]
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