Water information role
Making water information available
The Bureau provides a broad range of products and services to deliver water information to the public and to specialist users in policy, planning, engineering design and water management. These include:
Historical information and trends
- Water Data Online
- Hydrologic Reference Stations
- Water market information
- National Water Account
- Australian Water Outlook
- Urban national performance report
Current situation
- Water storages
Water forecasting
- Flood forecasts and warnings
- 7-day streamflow forecasts
- Seasonal streamflow forecasts
Planning tools
- Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric (Geofabric)
- Groundwater information
- Design rainfall estimates
Standards
- Water accounting standards
- National Industry Guidelines for Hydrometric Monitoring
- Water Data Transfer Format
All of the Bureau's water information programme products and services are free and can be found at www.bom.gov.au/water. Most can be accessed by all web users, with some specialist products available to registered users only.
What water information tells us
The Bureau's water information management products and services can help answer questions such as:
- How is water availability changing over time?
- Who is entitled to use water?
- How much water is being traded?
- How much water might flow downstream in the next week, or the next few months?
- What is the status of our aquifers?
- What is the soil moisture level and how is it changing?
- How are water management and climate influencing availability and use of water?
National collaboration
The Bureau works closely with Australian, State and Territory governments, agencies and more than 200 water utilities and other organisations to set standards, upgrade hydrological monitoring systems and improve data quality and delivery.
This has resulted in world-first standards, nation-wide practices and a growing capability in monitoring, assessing and forecasting water availability, condition and use.
We continue to refine our products and services and add new ones in response to the needs of water information users.
