Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology

The Bureau of Meteorology is a culturally diverse and skilled organisation with expertise in environmental monitoring, weather prediction, climate, water resource assessment and forecasting. These key services are provided by the Bureau to the Australian public, and benefit a range of industries and government organisations including: defence, aviation, water, agriculture, emergency management, health, mining, tourism and recreation. The Bureau is mandated by the Australian government, under the Water Act 2007 and the Water Regulations 2008, to deliver high quality water information to key stakeholders ? public, government and industry. In support of this the Bureau has a wide range of technical and professional staff, including ongoing research both internally and with external collaborators such as Universities and the CSIRO. Collating, standardising and archiving water data gathered by over 200 organisations is an important part of the Bureau fulfilling its responsibilities. The Bureau?s Water Resource Assessment reports and the annual National Water Accounts provide insights into the state of Australia?s water resources. Information for these products is sourced from the Australian Water Resources Assessment model, National Groundwater Information System and Climate Resilient Water Sources (urban water supply/use information). Flood forecasting is provided in cooperation with all Australian state and territory government water and emergency management agencies, catchment management authorities and local councils. Streamflow is forecast at 7-days, 1-month and seasonal time scales across Australia and provide information that supports decisions on water restriction planning, storage releases, and water allocations for irrigation and the environment.

Organisational Capability

• Numerical Weather Prediction, providing Australia-wide weather forecasts;
• Climate monitoring and prediction services including seasonal climate outlooks;
• Flood forecasting and warning service in support of emergency management;
• Streamflow forecasting across Australia, 7-day, 1-month and seasonal forecasts;
• Continent-wide water resources modelling and assessments;
• National Water Accounts for priority water regions of Australia;
• Managing an extensive Automatic Weather Station network across Australia and developing and managing
weather, water and environmental data archival and retrieval systems;
• Utilising global scale satellite observations for meteorological forecasts;
• Collaborative research into advancing water, weather and climate prediction and transitioning research into
operations; and
• Institutional capacity building for the development and delivery of national scale applications and
environmental service delivery systems.

Projects

Institutional strengthening and capacity building to improve weather forecasting and early flood warning systems in Vietnam
Bureau helped to improve weather forecasting and early warning systems in Vietnam with the objective of integrating all existing, ongoing and future investments in weather forecasting and early warning into one National Integrated Meteorological and Hydrological System. Bureau worked as consultants to the Joint Venture of Deltares and Royal Haskoning DHV and Centre for Environmental Fluid Dynamics (Vietnam). Reviewed Vietnam's Policies, Law and Institutional Framework governing natural hazard risk reduction. Examined the operating arrangements and explored new concepts. Provided recommendations supporting the provision of forecasting services by resetting the roles and responsibilities of the National Centre, Regions and Provinces.
Stakeholder and institutional engagement and governance of large national scale programs
The Bureau of Meteorology has led the Australian Government’s Water Information Program. It is a $450m program over 10 years designed to develop and deliver water information services freely to all Australians. Cooperative partnerships established with users of Bureau’s hydrologic services in Australia through various institutional arrangements e.g. Flood Warning Consultative Committees; Jurisdictional Reference Group for Water Information. Cooperative partnerships established with key R&D organisations across Australia e.g. CSIRO through Water Information Research and Development Alliance; university sector through targeted funding for Australian Research Council Grants.
Australian Water Resources Assessment (AWRA)
The Australian Water Resources Assessment Modelling System simulates Australian landscape and river water stores and fluxes for the past 100 years to now. These estimates are updated daily and provide the current and historical context of water availability in Australia. Users are able to visualise and download estimates of the current and historical state of key landscape water stores over different spatial and temporal scales and tailored products are available on request. The main benefits are; optimisation of water and land resource planning and management across different scales, improved water related investment decisions, and consistent and reliable water balance information.
Operational Hydrological Modelling and Forecasting Systems suitable for national scale applications
Highly automated forecasting systems operational on high performance computing infrastructure for end-to-end service delivery including data ingest, QA/QC tools, modelling workflows and graphic products delivered via web based services. Short Term Water Information Forecasting Tools for hourly streamflow forecasts up to 7 days. This software can be driven by ensemble rainfall forecasts. Modelling system WAFARi (Water Availability Forecasts of Australian Rivers) which supports the entire workflow ranging from data ingestion, rainfall-runoff model calibration and simulation, through to web publication on the Bureau's operational web servers. Rigorous treatment of forecast uncertainty and forecast verification system suitable for national hydrologic services.
Hydrologic Forecasting System (HyFS) for Flood Forecasting and Warning Services
The upgraded data management and hydrological forecasting systems for Bureau’s flood forecasting service and new 7-day streamflow forecasting services. Its new Hydrologic Forecasting System (HyFS) uses the Delft FEWS forecasting framework that has been adopted by many national agencies. HyFS enables forecasters to quickly assess current rainfall and river levels and use predicted rainfall to forecast flood development or recession. It supports forecasters in communicating current flood situations to the public, emergency services and other clients. System tools enable forecasters to more efficiently quality control the real-time observations underpinning the hydrological models used to forecast flood levels and streamflow.
Improved forecasting for flood and water management purposes, India
A Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Republic of India and the Government of Australia was first signed on 10th November 2009 for 5 years, and extended further in 2014 for a further 5 years to advance the collaborative effort in the water sector. Rainfall and flood forecasting is an important theme identified in previous engagements between Australia and India. The Bureau of Meteorology supported by the Australian Government and CSIRO, in leading this collaborative work with other key national operational and research agencies in India and Australia e.g. Central Water Commission, India (CWC); India Meteorological Department (IMD).