WDTF technical information

Water Data Transfer Format (WDTF)

The Water Data Transfer Format (WDTF) is an XML data transfer format enabling Australian water data interoperability.

WDTF was developed by the Bureau in collaboration with CSIRO under the Water Information Research and Development Alliance (WIRADA). Initial development was completed in July 2008.

The transfer format is an XML format adapted from the Observations and Measurements Encoding Standard published by Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The XML schema has been designed to conform to the GML Simple Features profile, and is compatible with the OGC's Web Feature Service interchange standard. The current version of the WDTF supports data for Regulations categories 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10a and 10b. We are currently working on including support for data category 2 (Ground water resource information).

Download the transfer format package
Download the transfer format distribution package.

The package contains:

• schema documents
• full and minimal example files
• documentation
• syntactic validation tool
• local cache of inherited schemas.

 

The following references for resources within the distribution package will assist you in understanding the schema.

 

XML schema documents	/wdtf-package-v0.3/wdtfwater.xsd /wdtf-package-v0.3/wdtfwaterCodes.xsd
Full data file examples	/wdtf-package-v0.3/wdtfExamples
Minimal data file examples	/wdtf-package-v0.3/minimalExamples
Documentation index	/wdtf-package-v0.3/documentation/index.html
WDTF schema content, hydrological interpretation	/wdtf-package-v0.3/documentation/html/index.html
Conventions for content, naming and FTP	/wdtf-package-v0.3/documentation/statichtml/XML.FileTransferConventions.htm
Schema control lists	/wdtf-package-v0.3/documentation/statichtml/SchemaControlLists.htm

 

Receive updates on the transfer format package

Subscribe to receive notifications of any format updates, online validation and WDTF tool support developments. Simply register via email to waterdata@bom.gov.au. When we receive and process your request you will receive acknowledgement.

For further information on the Water Data Transfer Format, email us at waterdata@bom.gov.au or contact Paul Sheahan on 02 6232 3530.