Webcast on Managing the Australian Water Crisis - 23 September 2008

Title: Managing the Australian Water Crisis Through Investment in Water Information Research

Presenter: Dr. David Lemon, CSIRO , Group Leader, Land and Water

Time: 5:15 EDT, 2:15 PM PDT

URL: http://breeze.usu.edu/water 

Technical details: Please note that the main difference between this presentation and other CUAHSI WebEx-based cyberseminars is that the sound comes in over the computer - not over the phone - so there is no dial in number for you to call.  You do need, however, to be set up to get sound on your computer.  This can be tested by looking at an existing breeze recording (e.g. http://breeze.usu.edu/p39295240/).  If you want to ask questions during the presentation, you will need to use the chat function in Breeze.

Select the "Enter as Guest" radio button, then enter your name and click the "Enter Room" button to join in.

Abstract: Large areas of Australia’s food production zones are now entering their 8th straight year of drought. This has led to unprecedented lows in water storage inflows and river flows and continued lack of water for irrigated agriculture.  Worse still, the water scarcity is now threatening the water supply to a number of towns along the Murray Darling system and many environmental assets are reaching points beyond which there is no hope for recovery. This crisis has led to a $12B investment by the Australian government to tackle many of the issues presented by this situation.

The Government also believes that management of the water crisis requires a new generation of water information system to underpin regular water accounting and assessment programs which will inform management and policy.   This responsibility has been assigned to the Bureau of Meteorology which will be supported by a research alliance (known as WIRADA) with Australia’s peak research organisation, CSIRO.  WIRADA focuses on the innovation required for the Bureau to meet its newly gained role as the nation’s water information manager and assessment provider.

WIRADA has four main areas of research: Water Information Systems, Foundation Data Sets, Water Accounting and Assessment and Water Resource Forecasting. Early projects are concentrating on Water Data Transfer Standards, Management of framework data sets and development of next generation hydrological workbenches.

This talk will provide additional context on the water crisis, elaborate on the WIRADA research program, discuss some of the early results of this work as well as describe plans for the next year.