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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The following is an introduction to Water reform for all: a national response to a water emergency. Read the full report here. Australia’s water reform project is failing to fully deliver for all Australians. With the COVID-19 pandemic, […]
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An analysis of new climate model projections by Australian researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes shows southwestern Australia and parts of southern Australia will see longer and more intense droughts due to a lack […]
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Planning for changes in future water availability due to climate change is crucial for developing equitable sharing of water resources between urban, agricultural, industrial, environmental and other uses of water. Throughout the rest of the 21st century, south-eastern […]
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The majority of rainfall across southern Australia is due to either a low pressure system (cyclone), a cold front, or a thunderstorm. The interactions between these weather systems are particularly important for heavy rain events. As part of […]
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Australia’s complex and extensive inland rivers are among the most hydrologically variable in the world, and yet they are lifelines through dry landscapes that support a large and important agricultural industry and some of our most unique ecosystems. […]
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Over half the world’s rivers- and over 70% of Australia’s rivers- go dry for part of each year. During these dry periods, pools of water along the river channels (also called billabongs, springs, or even wetlands) act as […]
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Understanding how energy and water are distributed at the Earth’s surface is a key part of predicting climate extremes such as drought, heatwaves, and flooding. Depending on the landscape and prevailing conditions, rainfall might join rivers, get stored […]
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It has been estimated that as the Earth warms the atmosphere will be able to hold around 7% more moisture for each degree of global warming. As a result, it is expected extreme precipitation events will vary in […]
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New international research has found a worrying change in the Indian Ocean’s surface temperatures that puts southeast Australia on course for increasingly hot and dry conditions. The work led by The Australian National University (ANU) and the ARC […]
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Hydromorphological attributes such as river width, flow regime, water extent and gradient provide fundamental information for understanding river hydrological, biogeochemical and ecological processes in floodplain-river systems, identifying flooding-prone areas, assessing river conveyance capacity, estimating river depth and discharge, […]
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Drought is a complex phenomenon due to its underlying physical interactions between the land surface and the atmosphere. Its creeping nature and potentially large spatial extent make drought a long-lasting and costly natural hazard. However, the onset of drought can unfold on […]
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Despite widespread interest in hydrologic variability, there is currently no general climatology of the variability of the water cycle over land. This has limited the development of the underlying science of hydrologic extremes. This paper uses a recently […]
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As the climate changes, past observations may no longer represent the future we’re trying to predict; this could invalidate models calibrated to observed data. Hydrologists have traditionally addressed this problem by looking to past climate variability as a […]
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Australia is no stranger to extreme heat, drought and flooding rains. Indeed, the last decade brought many extreme events, starting with the Big Wet and ending with the severe eastern Australian drought. This has prompted many to ask […]
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With large parts of south-eastern Australia in the grips of the worst drought in 120 years, irrigation communities in the Murray-Darling Basin are suffering under low water availability and high water prices. Alongside severe cuts in commodity prices, […]
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For the thousand or so farmers in Canberra in the past week venting their anger at the federal government, it’s the Murray-Darling Basin Plan to blame for destroying their livelihoods and forcing them off the land. We can’t […]
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Extreme hydrological anomalies such as drought have significant impacts on infrastructure and socio-environmental systems. Skillful prediction of droughts is essential for reducing those impacts. For example, water sharing and allocation amongst stakeholders can be optimized with reliable information […]
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Many studies have shown that conceptual hydrologic models become less reliable as the conditions they aim to simulate deviate further from the calibration conditions. Some attempts to improve model transferability under change have been published, considering options such […]
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