Hundreds of billions of litres of water is missing from the Murray-Darling Basin, according to a new report. An Australian National University (ANU) study claimed the Federal Government had grossly exaggerated the amount of water being returned to […]
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Giving irrigators a licence to divert huge volumes of water is a recipe for disaster, opponents say. Aboriginal groups, graziers, environmental groups and the former commonwealth environmental water holder have urged the New South Wales water minister 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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“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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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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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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