Some big new initiatives

Agreed priorities:

• New water systems• Climate change implications• Stormwater harvesting• energy and water• trialling new water

technologies• infrastructure assessment• bio-safety and bio-security

Agreed priorities:

• Future water supply• Indirect potable• Stormwater capture• Aquifer Storage and

recovery• Optimising water systems

• Water loss reduction• Water information and

integration systems• Managing risks

• Public acceptance• climate

Water Services Australia Association Southeast Queensland

First Ministers’ request on

Murray-Darling Water Security

• First Ministers commissioned CSIRO to report progressively by the end of 2007 on sustainable yields of surface and groundwater systems within the Murray-Darling Basin, including an examination of assumptions about sustainable yield in light of changes in climate and other issues.

• Such a report would provide a robust Basin-wide estimate of water resources on an individual catchment and aquifer basis, taking into account climate change and other risks to shared water.

Vision for the Water Resources

Observation Network

• By 2010 the framework enables a national scale approach to management of water resources resulting in a 15%-20% saving in the annual $2.6B costs of management

• Goal: To develop by 2010 a federation of harmonised information systems based on a standardised framework for the provision of:

• A robust National Water Account available to all water users;

• An accredited National Water Forecasting System;

• A modular and flexible National Water Reporting System;

• A National Water Sensor Network providing accurate and timely information of water use and ecosystem health.

WRON - Why?

• About 150 organisations implement 1,000 water monitoring programs throughout Australia.

• About $170M per year is invested in water quantity and quality monitoring by State and Local Governments, Catchment based and community water monitoring groups.

• Of over 3,000 stream gauges operated nationally, as few as 1,000 are currently telemetered .

• Estimated measurement error in the current MDB monitoring systems could be as much as 1,100GL (with a value of $1.1B).

• Improvements proposed could effectively halve error uncertainty.

• No routine capacity to accurately report on water resources.

On 16 June 2006, the State and Federal Water Ministers agreed to the need to improve monitoring, measurement and management systems across the nation. The WRON proposal has been influential in this regard.

Link all water-related information via web services

                                                                           

Hydrometricdata

Geospatialdata

Usage andentitlement

data

Models

Data IntegrationData Integration

Focus on the interoperability of existing data sets pertinent to water resources management

Reporting SystemsReporting Systems

Focus on the provision of a system of web-based reporting tools to suit different end-user needs

Forecasting SystemsForecasting Systems

Focus on the implementation of automated forecasting tools linked to WRON data sources

Sensorization ProgramSensorization Program

Focus on improving water resource and water use monitoring

StandardsStandards

&&

AccessAccess

Focus on the development and promulgation of interoperability standards and inter-agency agreements for sharing data

• AWRIS• NAMS• SoE

• eWater Toolkit• ACCESS

AWDIP

NICTA

ES

CA

WR

IA

WD

IP

How WRON links to other initiatives

WRON RoadmapShort term (2-3 Years) Medium term (3-5 Years) Long term

20% saving in annual costs of water

resourcemanageme

nt

Theme Goal:

By 2010, achieve

harmonisation of all water information

systems based on an interoperable framework

enabling dynamic national

scale water accounting, forecasting & reporting.

WRONFramework

Development, Implementation of the specifications & standards for water

resource management

WRON compliance a mandatory requirement for all water infrastructure tenders.

Adoption by Software VendorsDynamic, automated national water accounting available to

all

WRONTechnologie

s

WRONSystems

Alignment and convergence with other initiatives (AWRIS, AWDIP, Water

2010 etc…). Consortium established to deliver and govern the WRON

WRON Open Source implementations, developer, validation

and accreditation tools available

WRON components deployed as web services used as WRON building

blocks.

Next Generation web-based forecasting and reporting tools available to communicate key

water issues to a wide range of users

Accredited National Water Forecasting System

operational across Australia

Water Data Integration Programme Making existing water resource, water

use and water entitlement data available, in collaboration with water

data custodians

Secure access to hydrometric, climate, geospatial data seamlessly linked to wide varitety of hydrological

models

Information systems deployed for fine scale, real time large scale water quantity and quality monitoring

Implementation of a National Hydrological Model

Comprehensive National Water Monitoring and

Reporting network

A national programme to double Australia’s monitoring

infrastructure and improve data quality through an upgrade and enhancement

of State-based water monitoring networks

Real time national sensor network provides improves calibration of

models and simulations leading to improved accuracy of water resources

forecasting

Thank You

QUESTIONS?