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HYDROLOGICAL SERVICES
Hydrology Sections, incorporating Flood
Warning Centres, exist in all Regional Offices of the Bureau. Overall coordination
is provided by the Head Office Hydrology Unit which also provides some
services. Regional service delivery depends on close cooperation with State
and Territory water and emergency service authorities and Local Government
agencies. The Bureau's Hydrological Services comprise three outputs:
· water resources assessment;
· flood warning service; and
· hydrometeorological advice.
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Table 22. Hydrological Services expenses and revenue ($'000) and staff level for 1999-2000 compared with reconstructed estimates for 1998-99 and the 1999-2000 Budget and Budget plus Additional Estimates appropriations.
| ESTIMATED | BUDGET2 | BUDGET & | ACTUAL | |
| ACTUAL | ADD. EST. | |||
| 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 1999-2000 | 1999-2000 | |
| ($'000) | ($'000) | ($'000) | ($'000) | |
| FINANCIAL | ||||
| EXPENSES | ||||
| Employee Expenses (Appropriation) | 3,857 | 3,883 | 3,755 | 3,900 |
| Employee Expenses (Section 31) | 71 | 71 | 208 | 208 |
| Supply of Goods and Services (Appropriation) | 738 | 866 | 908 | 965 |
| Supply of Goods and Services (Section 31) | 38 | 40 | 194 | 183 |
| Operating Lease Rentals | 551 | 514 | 520 | 484 |
| Depreciation | 432 | 334 | 334 | 367 |
| Other
Goods and Services Expenses
(WMO Contribution) |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Capital Use Charge | 51 | 24 | 28 | 23 |
| TOTAL PRICE OF OUTPUT | 5,737 | 5,732 | 5,948 | 6,129 |
| REVENUE | ||||
| Appropriations | 5,628 | 5,621 | 5,544 | 5,544 |
| Sale of Goods and Services | 109 | 111 | 402 | 402 |
| Miscellaneous - other | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| TOTAL REVENUE | 5,737 | 5,732 | 5,948 | 5,948 |
| STAFFING | ||||
| Staff Years (actual) | ||||
| - Funded from Employee Expenses (Appropriation) | 55.2 | 56.0 | 56.0 | 55.0 |
| - Funded from Supplier Expenses (Appropriation) | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| - Funded from Section 31 Receipts | 1.6 | 1.0 | 3.9 | 3.9 |
| - Funded from
Capitalised Salaries
(Asset Replacement) |
0.0 | 2.4 | 2.4 | 2.4 |
| TOTAL | 56.8 | 59.5 | 62.5 | 61.5 |
Performance indicators relating to the achievement of the planned outcome for 1999-2000 are given in Table 23.
Table 23. Indicators of achievement of planned outcome: Enhanced community safety and well-being through the effective use of hydrological and related services by the general public and other major social and economic sectors.
| The extent to which:·
hydrological and related services contribute to:
- minimising loss of life and property and community disruption from bushfires, tropical cyclones and severe storms; - minimising economic and other costs of disaster preparedness; - the safety, comfort, convenience and general welfare and economic benefit of the public and major community groups; and
· user needs are identified and satisfied and new services and products are developed as required; · the public, major user groups and specialised users receive, understand and make optimum use of the services and express satisfaction with the services. |
A summary of the 1999-2000 performance targets and results for Hydrological Services in terms of output quality, quantity and price is given in Table 24. The performance measures are aggregate measures across the three individual outputs involved in the provision of Hydrological Services. Detailed discussion of performance against these measures follows under the individual output headings.
Table 24. Summary of 1999-2000 Performance in terms of the quality, quantity and price of Hydrological Services
| PERFORMANCE MEASURE | TARGETa | ACTUAL | |
| QUALITY | Percentage of users surveyed are 'satisfied' or 'very satisfied' with hydrological data, information, advisory and flood warning services | 85% | N/Ab |
| QUANTITY | Hydrological data, information, advisory and flood warning services issued | 16,000 | 100,000c |
| Internet access to automated hydrological service delivery systems | 200,000 - 250,000 | 260,000 | |
| PRICE | Cost of Water Resources Assessment | $0.457m | $0.353m |
| Costs of provision of the Flood Warning Service | $4.269m | $4.516m | |
| Costs of provision of Hydrometeorological Advice | $0.722m | $1.260m | |
The project to improve the effectiveness of the rainfall intensity recording network, through the installation of tipping bucket rain gauges (TBRGs) equipped with data loggers, made some progress during the year following major delays resulting from equipment failures. The supply of tipping bucket raingauges from the manufacturer improved towards the end of the financial year, enabling replacement of gauges and improved data quality at sites where corrosion in the previous equipment had impacted adversely on the quality of the rainfall observations. Sufficient quantities of TBRGs to replace all corroded gauges and to continue the upgrade of the remaining sites fitted with chart recorders will however not be available until a new supply contract is put in place. The tender evaluation for this contract should be finalised early in the 2000-2001 financial year with purchases expected to commence immediately thereafter.
A report of the analysis of data collected during the field trial to compare the operational performance of the TBRG with the existing chart recorder was completed and distributed. The analyses showed that the data from the two instruments are statistically similar at intervals of less than 24 hours, that is, the intervals for which this type of data are required. The aim of this field trial is to ensure that the long-term rainfall record, used for hydrological design studies, remains a consistent and homogeneous data series.
Support for the research program of the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Catchment Hydrology continued throughout the year. Two projects were completed, one taking anholistic approach to rainfall-based design flood estimation and another analysing the spatial distribution of rainfall and storm movement using remote sensing. One new project on the development of a national data bank of stochastic climate and streamflow models was commenced. The new project will form part of the CRC's Climate Variability Program established in July 1999 as a component of the CRC's new seven-year research program.
Assembly of a national set of streamflow
data was completed for a project to develop techniques for seasonal streamflow
forecasting based on the El Niño and Southern Oscillation phenomena.
The project is being undertaken in collaboration with the Queensland Department
of Primary Industries, the University of Melbourne and the Queensland Department
of Natural Resources with funding from the Land and Water Resources Research
and Development Corporation (LWRRDC). The streamflow data, provided by
the State and Territory water agencies, will also be included in an upgraded
version of the decision support tool, RainMan, developed for use
by the agricultural industry. The coverage of the streamflow stations was
less than expected, however, with many periods of record shorter than desirable
for seasonal analysis (Figure 47), and so the University of Melbourne was
contracted to provide sequences of modelled streamflows matching the period
of available rainfall data.
Figure 47. Period of record for open river streamflow stations operated by major State and Territory water agencies, showing a large number of stations with less than 30 years of record.
During the year, links were established with the computer science courses at Swinburne and Monash (Caulfield) Universities, with two water resources-related projects being contributed as student projects: the development of a Web-browser interface for the National Streamgauging Catalogue, suitable for interrogation by the public; and the development of a graphical interface for the display of evapotranspiration data.
National activities aimed at ensuring that
projects undertaken and priorities identified meet the needs of the Australian
water industry included:
· membership of the Australian
National Commission for UNESCO Science Network and of various ARMCANZ Committees
and Working Groups;
· input to ARMCANZ documents, such
as the National Water Quality Management Strategy and the High Level Steering
Group on Water, emphasising in particular the importance of climate influences
on water resource issues and national water resources assessment issues;
and
· collection of river station network
details to prepare an update of the National Streamgauging Catalogue and
development of a Web-browser interface to the station information.
Input was provided by the Bureau to international
projects, and dissemination of information from Australia was promoted
at an international level, through:
· representing Australia at the
meeting of the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme Regional Steering
Committee for South-East Asia and the Pacific, in Nanjing, China in October;
· participating in the UNESCO-sponsored
Asian Pacific FRIEND (Flow Regimes from International, Experimental and
Network Data) Project and its associated scientific program, maintaining
the Australian Node for the Internet-based Asian Pacific FRIEND Water Archive
for the provision of data to researchers in the region and sourcing data
from countries in the region for inclusion in the water archive;
· organising a visit by a Japanese
researcher that included discussions with hydrologists and providers of
spatial data in Queensland government agencies;
· managing the WMO Hydrological
Operational Multipurpose System (HOMS), National Reference Centre for Australia;
· participating in the WMO International
Workshop on HOMS in the 21st Century, in Geneva in September 1999;
· membership of the WMO Region
V (South-West Pacific) Working Group on Hydrology;
· membership of the WMO Commission
for Hydrology Advisory Working Group;
· chairing the WMO Commission for
Hydrology Working Group on Basic Systems;
· chairing of a Workshop on Sediment
Monitoring and Measurement, in Beijing, China,in November 1999;
· conducting a WMO workshop on
Water Resources Assessment: Reviewing Capabilities for Water Resources
Assessment in the South Pacific countries, in Fiji in September/October
1999; and
· representing Australia at the
UNESCO International Hydrological Program Intergovernmental Council meeting
in Paris, June 2000.
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Users of flood warning services include emergency management agencies and members of the public, particularly those in flood prone areas. The Bureau disseminates flood warnings and information to the public (via the media, Internet and fax) as well as direct to flood response agencies for more detailed interpretation and dissemination. The Bureau is one part of what is referred to as the `total flood warning service'.
Systematic surveys of user satisfaction
with hydrological data, information, advisory and flood warning services
were not yet instituted in 1999-2000. In the absence of regular formal
surveys, user satisfaction with the functioning of the Flood Warning Service
was gauged through the following activities:
· Debriefings - feedback
from flood-affected communities during formal debriefings with other agencies
involved in the `total flood warning service'. Considerable positive feedback
is received at these debriefings along with suggestions for improvements
and extensions to the service;
· Flood Warning Consultative
Committees - feedback from agencies involved in the `total flood warning
service' through the Flood Warning Consultative Committee (FWCC) in each
State/Territory. The FWCC is responsible for setting the prioritiesfor
development of the flood warning service and is made up of representatives
from these agencies;
· Reports - formal assessments
of service performance following some major flood events. These reports
are usually only commissioned following major flooding events where problems
were experienced. The reports usually investigate and make recommendations
for the `total flood warning service'. Often the investigation leading
to the report includes surveys of users. The reports are objective, being
carried out by organisations external to the Bureau, but often are commissioned
or jointly sponsored by the Bureau;
· Formal Reviews - feedback
provided through formal reviews of components of the Bureau's Hydrological
Services; and
· Conferences, workshops and
meeting - ongoing feedback from users at conferences, workshops and
meetings.
Feedback on the Bureau's flood warning services gathered through the above activities revealed a high level of satisfaction with services in general during 1999-2000 with no major criticisms or concerns raised. Plans to undertake more systematic surveys were put in place during the year.
Flood Warning Services were provided during
all significant flood episodes of 1999-2000, particularly following resurgent
La Niña conditions in late 1999. The more serious flooding for the
year commenced in December when a low pressure system caused flooding along
the Queensland coast from Innisfail to the New South Wales border. In western
and central Queensland, rainfall in late November caused flooding in the
Thomson and Lower Barcoo Rivers with floodwaters draining slowly through
the river system eventually leading to major flooding in the Cooper Creek
at Windorah into January. February saw one of the most significant periods
of flooding in Queensland for several years. Early in the month heavy rainfall
caused flooding in the coastal catchments from Mackay to Ingham with flooding
moving to the far western catchments later in the month as the monsoonal
trough moved inland. Tropical cyclone Steve causing flooding in
coastal rivers and streams from Ingham to Cooktown. Among the more serious
flooding, the Barron River at Mareeba reached itshighest level since records
began in 1921, the inland town of Longreach had its second highest flood
and the Thomson River at Muttaburra reached one of its highest levels on
record. The township of Winton was subject to some of its most severe flooding
during the period and the rainfall from the monsoonal trough resulted in
widespread moderate to major flooding along the Diamantina River which
continued into March. Earlier in the month the Hugh, Finke and Palmer Rivers
in central Australia reached record levels flooding the Stuart Highway
following record rainfalls in the West Macdonnell Ranges. Tropical cyclone
Steve re-formed several times as it moved west across the north
of the continent bringing heavy rainfalls which flooded the rivers draining
to the Gulf of Carpentaria and moved eventually into Western Australia.
Here flooding extended from the northern Kimberley and Pilbara regions
to the Avon river just north of Perth, leading to serious property damage
and the evacuation of people from many of the remote communities in the
area. In Carnarvon, the Gascoyne River reached its highest level since
the 1960s when the levees protecting the township were built. A notable
outcome of the heavy rainfall across central Australia and western Queensland
during the February-March period was that Lake Eyre substantially filled
for the first time since 1974.
Photo - In February, the inland town of Longreach experienced its second highest flood on record when extremely heavy rains associated with resurgent La Niña conditions drenched extensive areas of central Australia and Queensland.
There were 1445 flood warning messages issued during 1999-2000, which is slightly above the average for the last decade. This service covered communities in all States and the Northern Territory and included flooding in small creeks as well as in the longer slow flowing inland river systems. The warning products included early alerts to the possibility of flooding, site specific forecasts of river height and the expected impact in terms of minor, moderate or major flooding in specific river basins, and more generalised products issued on a regional basis. Forecast flood heights were accurate to within 0.3 metres on 75 per cent of occasions.
A particular feature of the service this
year was the increased number of products (riverheight bulletins) available
on the Bureau's Web site and faxed to service users during floods. This
service attracted positive feedback not only during floods but also from
other groups of users such as canoeists and other recreational users of
inland waterways. The total number of accesses to automated hydrological
service delivery systems was some 260,000 during 1999-2000, of which 10,000
were accesses to facsimile systems and 250,000 were access to the Bureau's
Web site.
Figure 48 shows the significant growth
in the number of products issued since 1990-91 and the marked impact of
the Internet on the distribution of hydrometeorological information since
1998-99.
The growth in products in recent years has come primarily from
the introduction of automatically generated summaries of rainfall and river
height data, initially in Queensland but extended to Victoria during 1999-2000.
These products are posted on the Bureau's Web site and updated on an hourly
basis. As the range of products is further increased to meet demand and
the take-up of the Internet in the general community increases, this measure
is likely to further increase. However, the setting of targets will remain
difficult owing to the influence of weather conditions on the demand for
services.
Figure 48. The number of hydrological data, information, advisory and flood warning services issued and the number of Internet and facsimile accesses to automated hydrological service delivery systems from 1990-91 to 1999-2000. Note that Internet access was not available until 1998-99.
The number of hydrological data, information and flood advisory services issued this year was around 100,000, which was well in excess of the target figure of 16,000 due to the fact that the issuing of automatically generated hydrometeorological information via the Internet was introduced in 1998-99 and annual totals for products distributed by this means were not yet completed when the targets for 1999-2000 were set.
New and improved technical systems were introduced during the year to improve the efficiency of the service and to extend its coverage to new areas, including the Barwon and Goulburn Rivers and Traralgon Creek in Victoria and the Border Rivers and Townsville areain Queensland. The robustness of the service was improved also, through general strengthening of the data networks around the Nepean-Hawkesbury catchment in the greater Sydney area and other areas of New South Wales as well as Katherine in the Northern Territory and extension of the rainfall network in Western Australia to improve coverage of the Irwin River.
The major focus for technical improvements continued to be the development of hydrological applications for the Australian Integrated Forecast System. The database of real-time rainfall and river-level data, in support of operational applications, was consolidated and the prototype of a hydrological modelling system was completed. A particular highlight was the completion of the first release version of software to assist local agencies with their data collection and operations. This software, known as ENVIROMON, will be released to local agencies for initial evaluation before it eventually replaces the existing systems which in some cases were installed 10 or more years ago.
Flood Warning Consultative Committees continued to be a major forum for interacting with service users and ensuring services meet user needs and priorities. A growing emphasis on risk management has focussed attention on warning systems and the demands for new and improved warning services continued to grow. Planning for these new services involved close interaction with users and other stakeholders and this year saw a significant effort invested in workshops to ensure that the operation of the service was well understood at the local level. In Queensland, for example, workshops covering 16 local areas were held over a two-month period in cooperation with Department of Emergency Services staff.
Involvement in the research activities
of the Cooperative Research Centre for Catchment Hydrology continued this
year, particularly in the area of radar hydrology. This work, undertaken
in cooperation with the Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre, provided
insights into the calibration requirements of radar data used to provide
the quantitative estimates of rainfall that are needed for hydrological
forecasting.
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Hydrometeorological advice and products
include estimates of Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) and design Intensity-Frequency-Duration
(IFD) rainfall information, and a range of other statistical rainfall analyses,
provided on an incremental cost recovery basis.
PMP estimates can be provided using one
of four estimation methods:
· the Generalised Short Duration
Method (GSDM), for short durations and small areas, published as Bureau
of Meteorology Bulletin 53;
· the Generalised Tropical Storm
Method (GTSM), for long durations in regions where tropical storms are
of importance;
· the Generalised Southeast Australia
Method (GSAM), for long durations in regions not affected by tropical storms;
and
· a limited transposition method
for the West Coast of Tasmania, for long durations, based on a set of extreme
storms specific to the region.
Over the past year, 16 PMP studies were
completed, comprised of nine GSAM and seven GTSM.
As an adjunct to PMP estimation, Report Number 6 in the Hydrological Report Series, onRainfall Antecedent to Large and Extreme Design Rainfall Bursts over Southeast Australia, was published during the year, both as a hard copy report and on the Bureau Web site. The report provides important input to the design of spillway capacity for large dams. The antecedent rainfall distributions included in the report were accepted by the engineering community and recommended for use in design flood estimation in the 1999 edition of The Institution of Engineers, Australia's Australian Rainfall and Runoff (ARR), Book VI -Estimation of Large to Extreme Floods.
The main source of design rainfall information
for hydrological studies in Australia continued to be the Bureau's rainfall
IFD data as published in the 1987 edition of ARR. There was also demand
for more specialised rainfall intensity information and analyses, which
were used as input to a wide range of design flood model and environmental
studies including:
· the design and risk assessment
of dams, bridges and drainage systems;
· the design of buildings;
· soil conservation studies; and
· the design of, and formulation
of operational procedures for, satellite telecommunications links and mobile-phone
networks.
Demand for IFD studies remained high during 1999-2000, with 155 Computerised Design IFD Rainfall System (CDIRS) products requested and provided.
Figure 49. The number of requests for Intensity-Frequency-Duration (IFD) design rainfall data received and provided annually since the service was introduced in 1985-86, showing the strong demand following the 1987 publication of 'Australian Rainfall and Runoff' and the fairly steady demand in the years since.
Significant progress was made during the year on a project to revise the GTSM of estimating PMP and thus improve the information on extreme rainfalls used in assessing the safety of large dams in the tropical parts of Australia. This project received significant financial sponsorship from major water authorities in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, enabling the appointment of three contract staff in 1999-2000. Progress during thisyear included the establishment of a large database of significant storm events, involving the analysis of 115 major tropical storms as well as verifying the proposed approach for adjusting for the influence of orography on extreme rainfall. The storm database will be used in constructing the design storm envelope for the revised method. The project remained on schedule for completion in early 2002.
A project to develop a method for estimating PMP for the West Coast region of Tasmania, a region not covered by the GSAM of estimating PMP, was completed this year. The method was developed in close collaboration with the Hydro-Electricity Corporation of Tasmania, and so far has been tested on two catchments in the region.
2 Includes adjustments made to initial output allocations (as published in the Portfolio Budget Statement 1999-2000) in the light of further analysis of the overall resource situation following the Budget.
a Targets published in the 1999-2000 Environment and Heritage Portfolio Budget Statement (PBS).
b Survey not yet instituted - see accompanying text
c Changed definition - see accompanying text.
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