The widespread deaths of fish in the Darling River – with more predicted to come – has raised serious questions about the allocation of water between agriculture and the environment. Water-hungry crops like cotton and rice are also […]
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The droughts of past decades have burnt the term El Nino into the Australian vocabulary, but after the drought of 2018, perhaps the IOD — short for Indian Ocean Dipole — might also become a household name. A […]
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The CSIRO has found serious flaws in Adani’s key water management plan to protect an ancient springs complex near its proposed Carmichael coal mine, threatening to further delay the controversial project. The ABC can reveal Australia’s peak scientific […]
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Delivery of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan has been secured with state and federal governments agreeing to terms about how environmental water will be returned to rivers. Up to 450 gigalitres will be returned to the environment, provided it […]
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New present-day and projected future global Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at a 1 km resolution are now freely available via http://www.gloh2o.org/koppen/. The present-day (1980–2016) map uses topographically corrected climatic maps as input. The projected future conditions (2071–2100) are […]
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Australian native plants show that leaf traits can be predicted from the growth environment, but that models should incorporate intra-specific variation. Vegetation models are used to help us understand observed vegetation patterns across the world and the underlying […]
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The height of individual tree crowns near Alice Springs derived from TERN’s airborne lidar collection. The sheer abundance of data on Australia’s natural environment means that the data cannot be easily explored and analysed by non-expert users. To […]
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Water is essential for life. It shapes where and how we live, determines the availability of food and other services that underpin human well-being and is crucial for healthy natural ecosystems. Yet in Australia and globally the water […]
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Clearfell logging in the Thomson Catchment with the Thomson Reservoir in the background. (Source: Chris Taylor) Continued logging in Melbourne’s water catchments could reduce the city’s water supply by the equivalent of 600,000 people’s annual water use every […]
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Rain of biblical proportions, heatwaves, tornadoes and bushfires — extreme weather events happen around the world on a regular basis and Australian scientists are hoping to improve their forecasting with the help of citizen scientists. A new app […]
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Less than 1% of global river flows is used for irrigation, and only 1% of that occurs in Australia. That is the result of a high-resolution global model-data analysis we published recently. The importance of evaporation from wetlands, […]
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It has been well established that rising temperatures are increasing precipitation extremes. It is natural to hence assume that the risk of flooding will also increase. However, contrary to this popular belief most published literature finds more evidence […]
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Australia is facing more severe floods and droughts as rainfall patterns diminish over the past three decades, a new report has warned. Co-author Professor Will Steffen from the Climate Council said the report shows an intensification of drought and […]
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Drought is in the news here in New South Wales, Australia. But how are rainfall, drought and groundwater related? First, we need to understand what drought is. Is it a water shortage? Or a lack of rainfall? Or […]
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Two years ago we were celebrating just about the best year for farmers ever. Now many farmers – particularly in New South Wales and southern Queensland – are in the grip of drought. It underlines just how variable […]
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It’s not about more money for farmers. It’s about long-term settings for a changing climate – and taking the politics out of it Central to the Australian meaning of drought is the idea of a rainfall deficiency, a […]
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Evaporation pans measure atmospheric evaporative demand and are used to estimate water loss from storages such as dams and to provide inputs to hydrologic models and drought indices. In the late 20th century, a surprising trend was found: […]
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All over the world, the wind is slowing. Bit by bit, low-level land wind speeds have been decreasing since reliable records began in the 1970s. It is called “the stilling”. The decline was silently sneaking through under the […]
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Australians should brace for a dry, hot summer, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, with no relief for drought-stricken farmers. The bureau’s climate outlook for November to January, released on Friday, says there is an 80% chance temperatures […]
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Lake Eyre is one of Australia’s most iconic wetlands, home to thousands of waterbirds that migrate from all over Australia and the world. But it is often dry for decades between floods. Many people think wetlands are swamps […]
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