Australian Water Information Dictionary

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There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

The volume of water in storage as a percentage of the accessible storage capacity. Note that the percentage full may exceed 100% due to floods for example.

Related: accessible storage capacity

Synonym: percentage full

This definition applies to:

Context 2

The total volume of water in storage as a percentage of the total storage capacity. Note that the percentage full may exceed 100% due to floods for example.

This definition applies to:

The 25% quartile of a set of numbers is the value in which 25% of the numbers are below it and 75% of the numbers are above it when the numbers are arranged in ascending (increasing) order.

Synonym: first quartile

This definition applies to:

The 75% quartile of a set of numbers is the value in which 75% of the numbers are below it and 25% of the numbers are above it when the numbers are arranged in ascending (increasing) order.

Synonym: third quartile

This definition applies to:

The removal of water from a water store.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

The volume of water that a water storage can hold between the minimum supply level and full supply level; equal to the total storage capacity excluding the dead storage capacity. It is the sum of this capacity that is reported for a collection of water storages. See the water storage diagram for more information.

Related:

Synonym: capacity

This definition applies to:

Context 2

The volume of water that a water storage can hold between the minimum supply level and full supply level; equal to the total storage capacity excluding the dead storage capacity. In the Bureau water storage application, it is the sum of this capacity that is reported for a collection of water storages. See the water storage diagram for more information.

This definition applies to:

The volume of water stored at a particular time and date. It excludes the dead storage volume and hence is the volume of water that can be accessed under normal circumstances without the installation of additional infrastructure. See the water storage diagram for more information.

Synonym: volume

This definition applies to:

Water in artificial or natural water storages connected to rivers, for which primary purpose is medium to long term water storage to service surface water access rights. These storages can be managed by an organisation to provide water to a rural or urban water system. Weirs that are used primarily to redirect flows are excluded. The volumetric capacity reported includes dead storage capacity.

This definition applies to:

Physical and non-physical surface water assets other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

A river where there is no entitlement system at all or where there is an entitlement system which does not allow orders to be placed for upstream release of a licensed allocation. It includes locks and weirs used primarily to redirect flows that are located on unregulated stretches of river.

This definition applies to:

A river on which a licensed entitlement regime exists with centralised allocation, and from which orders may be placed for upstream release of a licensed allocation. A necessary, but not sufficient condition for a river to be regulated is that it is located downstream of a surface water storage. Includes locks and weirs used primarily to redirect flows that are located on regulated stretches of river.

This definition applies to:

Other water bodies, of natural origin, for which the primary purpose is not abstractive or consumptive use. They may include water in natural lakes, ponds, lagoons, wetlands, billabongs and groundwater-fed water bodies that are not classified as storages based on their primary purpose.

This definition applies to:

A claim to water outside the region held on behalf of the surface water. It includes claims resulting from:

• an announced allocation held on a water resource located outside the region

• inter-government agreements at allocation (retail) level

It excludes claims resulting from:

• inter-government agreements to share water before it is allocated

• water traded into the region

• contract to deliver desalinated sea water.

This definition applies to:

A claim to water resulting from water traded into the region held on behalf of the surface water.

This definition applies to:

A claim to desalinated sea water held on behalf of the surface water. It excludes claims on behalf of the urban water system, which are reported in line item 3.6 Urban claim on desalinated water.

This definition applies to:

A claim to water held on behalf of the surface water other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

A claim to water held on behalf of the surface water, following an overdraft of surface water allocation by an allocation holder that is not part of the water accounting region. This can be thought of as an 'advance draw'. It includes overdraft by private allocation holders.

It only includes overdraft by urban water system and irrigation schemes when those are not part of the water accounting region.

This definition applies to:

Lateral flow of groundwater into the region's groundwater from inland groundwater aquifers that extend outside the region. It excludes lateral flow of groundwater from coastal aquifers.

This definition applies to:

Discharge from the urban water system either directly or indirectly to the region's groundwater. It includes recycled water discharge to infiltration basins for the purpose of recharging groundwater and wastewater discharge to groundwater via infiltration.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of water to the region's groundwater to service a prior claim recognised on behalf of the groundwater.

This definition applies to:

Increase of claim held on behalf of the region's groundwater. It includes claims resulting from:

• an announced allocation held on a water resource located outside the region

• inter-government agreements at allocation (retail) level

• water traded into the region.

It excludes claims resulting from inter-government agreements to share water before it is allocated.

This definition applies to:

Increases of physical and non-physical groundwater assets other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Lateral flow of groundwater into the region from groundwater aquifers that extend outside the region at the coast.

This definition applies to:

Diffuse recharge from landscape to the region's groundwater due to both natural and artificial processes. It includes irrigation induced recharge. It excludes urban infiltration basin recharge or managed aquifer recharge.

This definition applies to:

Recharge from surface water to the region's groundwater. It includes the deliberate recharge of groundwater from surface water storages and rivers.

This definition applies to:

Leakage from off-channel water storages to the region's groundwater.

This definition applies to:

Leakage from urban water systems to the region's groundwater. It includes exfiltration from wastewater collection systems. It includes leakage from non-potable, potable and recycled water supply systems. It excludes pipe bursts, overflows or spills.

This definition applies to:

Leakage from an irrigation scheme to the region's groundwater. It includes leakage from irrigation channels, tanks and storages that form part of the irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

Managed aquifer recharge other than from the urban water system to the region's groundwater. It includes stormwater and industrial wastewater used for managed aquifer recharge and for a managed aquifer recharge scheme.

This definition applies to:

Managed aquifer recharge from the urban water system to the region's groundwater. It includes non-potable and recycled water used in a managed aquifer recharge scheme.

This definition applies to:

All forms in which water falls on the region's urban water system as rain, sleet, snow, hail, or drizzle. It includes precipitation on wastewater treatment lagoons or ponds, recycled water storages and off-channel water storages that are part of the urban water system. It excludes precipitation on surface water storages.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of water into the region's urban water system to service a prior claim resulting from water traded into the region (see line item 11.16 Increase of urban claim on traded water).

This definition applies to:

Delivery of desalinated sea water to the region's urban water system to service a prior claim recognised on behalf of the urban water system. It excludes delivery of desalinated sea water where no prior claim has been recognised (see line item 11.6 Delivery of desalinated water to urban water system). It excludes water delivered to an urban water system from the region's surface water that was originally desalinated water.

This definition applies to:

Diversion of surface water to the region's urban water system to service a prior allocation announced on behalf of the urban water system. It includes diversions under 32.3 Surface water access entitlement for allocation diversion.

This definition applies to:

Diversion of groundwater to the region's urban water system to service a prior allocation announced on behalf of the urban water system. It includes diversions under 33.3 Groundwater access entitlement for allocation diversion.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of physical water to the region's urban water system other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Increase of claims to water outside the region on behalf of the urban water system. It includes claims resulting from:

• an announced allocation held on a water resource located outside the region

• agreements at allocation (retail) level.

It excludes claims resulting from:

• water traded into the region

• contract to deliver desalinated sea water.

This definition applies to:

Increase of claim held on behalf of the urban water system resulting from water traded into the region.

This definition applies to:

Increase of claim to desalinated sea water held on behalf of the urban water system. It excludes an increase of claim held on behalf of the surface water (see line item 9.17 Increase of claim on desalinated water).

This definition applies to:

Increase of claim on the region's surface water held on behalf of the urban water system. It includes allocations announced or otherwise recognised during the reporting period on the region's surface water for the urban water system.

This definition applies to:

Increase of claim on the region's groundwater held on behalf of the urban water system. It includes allocations announced or otherwise recognised during the reporting period on the region's groundwater for the urban water system.

This definition applies to:

Diversion from the region's surface water into the urban water system where no prior claim has been recognised on behalf of the urban water system. It includes diversions under 32.2 surface water access entitlement for direct diversion and the 32.1 Other statutory surface water rights.

This definition applies to:

Increase of claim held on behalf of the region's urban water system other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Increases of physical and non-physical urban water system assets other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Extraction from the region's groundwater into the urban water system where no prior claim has been recognised on behalf of the urban water system. It includes extractions under 33.2 Groundwater access entitlement for direct extraction and 33.1 Other statutory groundwater rights.

This definition applies to:

Discharge of wastewater into the region's wastewater collection system. It includes discharge of wastewater by users into wastewater collection systems. It excludes wastewater collected by urban utilities outside the region and then transferred into the region.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of imported water to the region's urban water system where no prior claim has been recognised on behalf of the urban water system. It includes non-potable, potable, wastewater and recycled water transferred into the region by urban water utilities servicing an area that extends outside the region.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of desalinated sea water to the region's urban water system where no prior claim has been recognised on behalf of the urban water system.

This definition applies to:

Ingress of stormwater into the region's wastewater collection system.

This definition applies to:

Infiltration of groundwater into the region's wastewater collection system.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of imported water to the region's urban water system to service a prior claim recognised on behalf of the urban water system. The prior claim may be an announced allocation held on a water resource located outside the region or another agreement at allocation (retail level), but excludes water trade and contracts for the delivery of desalinated sea water.

This definition applies to:

All forms in which water falls on the region's irrigation scheme as rain, sleet, snow, hail, or drizzle. F873It includes precipitation on irrigation supply and collection channels, and irrigation scheme storages.

This definition applies to:

Diversion of groundwater to the region's irrigation scheme to service a prior allocation announced on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It includes diversions under 33.3 Groundwater access entitlement for allocation diversion.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of physical water to the region's irrigation scheme other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Increase of claims to water outside the region on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It includes claims resulting from:

• an announced allocation held on a water resource located outside the region

• agreements at allocation (retail) level.

It excludes claims resulting from:

• water traded into the region

• contract to deliver desalinated sea water.

This definition applies to:

Increase of claim held on behalf of the irrigation scheme resulting from water traded into the region.

This definition applies to:

Increase of claim to desalinated sea water held on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It excludes an increase of claim held on behalf of the surface water (see line item 9.17 Increase of claim on desalinated water).

This definition applies to:

Increase of claim on the region's surface water held on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It includes allocations announced or otherwise recognised during the reporting period on the region's surface water for the irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

Increase of claim on the region's groundwater held on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It includes allocations announced or otherwise recognised during the reporting period on the region's groundwater for the irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

Increase of claim held on behalf of the region's irrigation scheme other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Increases of physical and non-physical irrigation scheme assets other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Diversion from the region's surface water into the irrigation scheme where no prior claim has been recognised on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It includes diversions under 32.2 Surface water access entitlement for direct diversion and 32.1 Other statutory surface water rights.

This definition applies to:

Extraction from the region's groundwater into the irrigation scheme where no prior claim has been recognised on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It includes extractions under 33.2 Groundwater access entitlement for direct extraction and 33.1 Other statutory groundwater rights.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of water from the region's urban water system to the irrigation scheme where no prior claim has been recognised on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It includes recycled water.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of imported water to the region's irrigation scheme where no prior claim has been recognised on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It includes water transferred into the region by irrigation entities servicing an area that extends outside the region.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of imported water to the region's irrigation scheme to service a prior claim recognised on behalf of the irrigation scheme. The prior claim may be an announced allocation held on a water resource located outside the region or another agreement at allocation (retail level), but excludes water trade and contracts for the delivery of desalinated sea water.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of water into the region's irrigation scheme to service a prior claim resulting from water traded into the region (see line item 12.13 Increase of irrigation scheme claim on traded water).

This definition applies to:

Delivery of desalinated sea water to the region's irrigation scheme to service a prior claim recognised on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It excludes delivery of desalinated sea water where no prior claim has been recognised.

This definition applies to:

Diversion of surface water to the region's irrigation scheme to service a prior allocation announced on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It includes diversions under 32.3 Surface water access entitlement for allocation diversion.

This definition applies to:

Adjustment and forfeiture of allocation on the surface water held on behalf of users other than the urban water system. It includes adjustment and forfeiture of allocation for:

• private users and irrigation schemes where those are not identified as a water asset of the water accounting region

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

It excludes adjustment and forfeiture of allocation for:

• irrigation schemes where those are identified as a water asset of the water accounting region (reported in line item 13.3 Adjustment and forfeiture of surface water allocation - irrigation scheme).

This definition applies to:

Adjustment and forfeiture of allocation on the surface water held on behalf the urban water system. It includes adjustment and forfeiture of allocation for:

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

This definition applies to:

Adjustment and forfeiture of allocation on the surface water held on behalf of irrigation schemes where those are identified as water asset of the water accounting region. It excludes adjustment and forfeiture of allocation for:

• irrigation scheme considered as users not part of the water assets of the water accounting region (reported in line item 13.1 Adjustment and forfeiture of surface water allocation).

This definition applies to:

Adjustment and forfeiture of inter-region commitment on surface water (see line item 5.4 Inter-region commitment on surface water) approved during the reporting period (or remaining from the previous reporting period) that has not been serviced at the end of the reporting period.

This definition applies to:

Adjustment and forfeiture of commitment resulting from trade of surface water out of the region (see line item 5.5 Commitment on water traded out of the region) approved during the reporting period (or remaining from the previous reporting period) that has not been serviced at the end of the reporting period.

This definition applies to:

[Decreases of surface water liabilities][753] other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Adjustment and forfeiture of allocation on the groundwater held on behalf of users other than the urban water system. It includes adjustment and forfeiture of allocation for:

• private users and irrigation schemes where those are not identified as a water asset of the water accounting region

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

It excludes adjustment and forfeiture of allocation for:

• irrigation schemes where those are identified as a water asset of the water accounting region (reported in line item 14.3 Adjustment and forfeiture of groundwater allocation - irrigation scheme).

This definition applies to:

Adjustment and forfeiture of allocation on the groundwater held on behalf the urban water system. It includes adjustment and forfeiture of allocation for:

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

This definition applies to:

Adjustment and forfeiture of allocation on the groundwater held on behalf of irrigation schemes where those are identified as a water asset of the water accounting region.

It excludes adjustment and forfeiture of allocation for:

• irrigation scheme where those are considered as users not part of the water assets of the water accounting region (reported in line item 14.1 Adjustment and forfeiture of groundwater allocation).

This definition applies to:

Adjustment and forfeiture of inter-region commitment on groundwater (see line item 6.4 Inter-region commitment on groundwater) approved during the reporting period (or remaining from the previous reporting period) that has not been serviced at the end of the reporting period.

This definition applies to:

Adjustment and forfeiture of commitment resulting from trade of groundwater out of the region (see line item 6.5 Commitment on traded out groundwater) approved during the reporting period (or remaining from the previous reporting period) that has not been serviced at the end of the reporting period.

This definition applies to:

[Decreases of groundwater liabilities][747] other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Adjustment and forfeiture of commitment made during the reporting period (or remaining from the previous reporting period) to deliver water from the region's urban water system to users within or out of the region or to other urban water systems out of the region. It excludes adjustment and forfeiture of commitment to deliver water to surface water, groundwater and the irrigation scheme where those are part of the water accounting region.

This definition applies to:

Decreases of urban water system liabilities other than those defined elsewhere. It includes adjustment and forfeiture of commitment to deliver water to surface water, groundwater and the irrigation scheme where those are part of the water accounting region.

This definition applies to:

Adjustment and forfeiture of commitment made during the reporting period (or remaining from the previous reporting period) to deliver water from the region's irrigation scheme to users within or out of the region or to other irrigation schemes out of the region. It excludes adjustment and forfeiture of commitment to deliver water to surface water, groundwater and the urban water system where those are part of the water accounting region.

This definition applies to:

Decreases of irrigation scheme liabilities other than those defined elsewhere. It includes adjustment and forfeiture of commitment to deliver water to surface water, groundwater and the F910urban water system where those are part of the water accounting region.

This definition applies to:

Movement of water from the region's surface water to the atmosphere (water vapour).

This definition applies to:

All uncalculated flows and changes in storage and errors made on calculated terms related to the surface water. The main uncalculated ouflows may include: runoff water evaporated or leaked from the floodplain and not reaching the rivers, overbank flood water, leakage to groundwater and evaporation from rivers.

This definition applies to:

Surface water diverted to users other than the urban water system, under water access entitlements for which an allocation has been recognised (see line item 32.3 Surface water access entitlement for allocation diversion). It includes allocated diversions for:

• private users and irrigation schemes where those are not identified as a water asset of the water accounting region

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

It excludes allocated diversions for:

• irrigation schemes where those are identified as a water asset of the water accounting region (reported in line item 17.13 Surface water allocation diversion - irrigation scheme).

This definition applies to:

Surface water diverted to urban water system, under water access entitlements for which an allocation has been recognised (see line item 32.3 Surface water access entitlement for allocation diversion). It includes allocated diversions for:

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

This definition applies to:

Surface water diverted to irrigation schemes under water access entitlements for which an allocation has been recognised (see line item 32.3 Surface water access entitlement for allocation diversion). It includes allocated diversions for:

• irrigation schemes where those are identified as water asset of the water accounting region

It excludes allocated diversions for:

• irrigation scheme where those are considered as users not part of the water assets of the water accounting region (reported in line item 17.11 Surface water allocation diversion).

This definition applies to:

Surface water transferred out of the region under a recognised inter-region commitment to deliver surface water (see line item 5.4 Inter-region commitment on surface water).

This definition applies to:

Surface water transferred out of the region under a recognised commitment to deliver surface water traded to another region (see line item 5.5 Commitment on water traded out of the region).

This definition applies to:

Surface water diverted under a recognised commitment to deliver surface water other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claim to water outside the region held on behalf of the surface water. It includes adjustment and forfeiture of claims resulting from:

• an announced allocation held on a water resource located outside the region

• inter-government agreements at allocation (retail) level.

It excludes adjustment and forfeiture of claims resulting from:

• inter-government agreements to share water before it is allocated

• water traded into the region

• contracts to deliver desalinated sea water.

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claim to water resulting from water traded into the region held on behalf of the surface water.

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claim to desalinated sea water held on behalf of the surface water. It excludes claims on behalf of the urban water system, which are reported in line item 19.16 Decrease of urban claim on desalinated water.

This definition applies to:

River outflow from the region to either a downstream region or the sea.

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claims to water held on behalf of the surface water other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Decreases of physical and non-physical surface water assets other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Leakage from either the surface water, urban system or irrigation scheme to the region's groundwater. It excludes pipe bursts, overflows or spills, which are classified as leakage to landscape.

This definition applies to:

Leakage from either the surface water, urban water system or irrigation scheme to the unsaturated zone of the soil profile and which does not infiltrate to groundwater as recharge.

This definition applies to:

Overflow from the surface water to the landscape. It includes flood waters that have overflowed the river channel top of bank and spilled to the flood plains. It excludes flood waters to seasonally connected wetlands and other surface water bodies.

This definition applies to:

Surface water diverted under statutory rights other than entitlements (see line item 32.1 Other statutory surface water rights).

This definition applies to:

Surface water diverted to users other than the urban water system, under water access entitlements for which no allocation has been recognised (see line item 32.2 Surface water access entitlement for direct diversion). It includes non-allocated diversions for:

• private users and irrigation schemes where those are not identified as a water asset of the water accounting region

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

It excludes non-allocated diversions for:

• irrigation schemes where those are identified as a water asset of the water accounting region (reported in line item 17.9 Non-allocated diversions - irrigation scheme).

This definition applies to:

Surface water diverted to an urban water system, under water access entitlements for which no allocation has been recognised (see line item 32.2 Surface water access entitlement for direct diversion). It includes non-allocated diversions for:

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

This definition applies to:

Surface water diverted to irrigation schemes under water access entitlements for which no allocation has been recognised (see line item 32.2 Surface water access entitlement for direct diversion). It includes non-allocated diversions for:

• irrigation schemes where those are identified as a water asset of the water accounting region.

It excludes non-allocated diversions for:

• irrigation scheme where those are considered as users not part of the water assets of the water accounting region (reported in line item 17.7 Non-allocated diversions to users).

This definition applies to:

Lateral flow of groundwater out of the region's groundwater to inland groundwater aquifers that extend outside the region. It excludes lateral flow of groundwater to coastal aquifers.

This definition applies to:

Groundwater extracted to irrigation schemes under water access entitlements for which no allocation has been recognised (see line item 33.2 Groundwater access entitlement for direct extraction). It includes non-allocated extractions for:

• irrigation schemes where those are identified as water asset of the water accounting region

It excludes non-allocated extractions for:

• irrigation scheme where those are considered as users not part of the water assets of the water accounting region (reported in line item 18.8 Non-allocated extractions to users).

This definition applies to:

Groundwater extracted to users other than the urban water system, under water access entitlements for which an allocation has been recognised (see line item 33.3 Groundwater access entitlement for allocation extraction). It includes allocated extractions for:

• private users and irrigation schemes where those are not identified as a water asset of the water accounting region

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

It excludes allocated extractions for:

• irrigation schemes where those are identified as a water asset of the water accounting region (reported in line item 18.13 Groundwater allocation diversion - irrigation scheme).

This definition applies to:

Groundwater extracted to urban water system, under water access entitlements for which an allocation has been recognised (see line item 33.3 Groundwater access entitlement for allocation extraction). It includes allocated extractions for:

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

This definition applies to:

Groundwater extracted to irrigation schemes under water access entitlements for which an allocation has been recognised (see line item 33.3 Groundwater access entitlement for allocation extraction). It includes allocated extractions for:

• irrigation schemes where those are identified as a water asset of the water accounting region.

It excludes allocated extractions for:

• irrigation scheme where those are considered as users not part of the water assets of the water accounting region (reported in line item 18.11 Groundwater allocation extraction).

This definition applies to:

Groundwater transferred out of the region under a recognised inter-region commitment to deliver groundwater (see line item 6.4 Inter-region commitment on groundwater).

This definition applies to:

Groundwater transferred out of the region under a recognised commitment to deliver groundwater traded to another region (see line item 6.5 Commitment on traded out groundwater).

This definition applies to:

Groundwater diverted under a recognised commitment to deliver groundwater other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claim to water outside the region held on behalf of the groundwater. It includes adjustment and forfeiture of claims resulting from:

• an announced allocation held on a water resource located outside the region

• inter-government agreements at allocation (retail) level

• water traded into the region

• contract to deliver desalinated sea water.

It excludes adjustment and forfeiture of claims resulting from:

• inter-government agreements to share water before it is allocated.

This definition applies to:

Decreases of physical and non-physical groundwater assets other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Lateral flow of groundwater out of the region to groundwater aquifers that extend outside the region at the coast.

This definition applies to:

Discharge from the groundwater to the landscape, including soil, unconnected lakes and wetlands. It includes capillary rise and evaporation from the water table aquifer.

This definition applies to:

Flow of groundwater from the saturated zone to streams, water storages, farm dams and natural surface water features. This is a form of groundwater-surface water interaction.

This definition applies to:

Discharge from groundwater to the region's off-channel water storages such as farm dams.

This definition applies to:

Infiltration of groundwater into the region's wastewater collection system.

This definition applies to:

Groundwater extracted under statutory rights other than entitlements (see line item 33.1 Other statutory groundwater rights).

This definition applies to:

Groundwater extracted to users other than the urban water system, under water access entitlements for which no allocation has been recognised (see line item 33.2 groundwater access entitlement for direct extraction). It includes non-allocated extractions for:

• private users and irrigation schemes where those are not identified as a water asset of the water accounting region

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

It excludes non-allocated extractions for:

• irrigation schemes where those are identified as a water asset of the water accounting region (reported in line item 18.10 Non-allocated extractions - irrigation scheme).

This definition applies to:

Groundwater extracted to urban water system, under water access entitlements for which no allocation has been recognised (see line item 33.2 Groundwater access entitlement for direct extraction). It includes non-allocated extractions for:

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

This definition applies to:

Movement of water from the region's urban water system to the atmosphere (water vapour).

This definition applies to:

Water from the urban water system discharged either directly or indirectly to the groundwater. It includes recycled water discharged to infiltration basins for the purpose of recharging groundwater and wastewater discharged to groundwater via infiltration.

This definition applies to:

Water transferred out of the region from the urban water system without prior commitment to deliver water having being recognised. It includes export of non-potable, potable, wastewater and recycled water from the region due to the region's urban utilities servicing an area that extends outside the region.

This definition applies to:

Water transferred out of the region or delivered to urban water users from the urban water system under a recognised commitment, including result of a water trade, to deliver water. It excludes commitments in favour of the surface water, groundwater and irrigation scheme where those have been identified as water assets of the region.

This definition applies to:

Water delivered from the urban water system under a recognised commitment other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claim to water outside the region on behalf of the urban water system. It includes adjustment and forfeiture of claim resulting from:

• allocations announced under entitlements to access a water resource located outside the region

• other agreements at allocation (retail) level.

It excludes claims resulting from:

• water traded into the region.

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claim to water resulting from water traded into the region on behalf of the urban water system.

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claim to desalinated sea water on behalf of the urban water system. It excludes claims on behalf of the surface water, which are reported in line item 17.19 Decrease of claim on desalinated water.

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claims on the region's surface water held on behalf of the urban water system. It includes adjustment and forfeiture of surface water allocation announced or otherwise recognised during the reporting period (or remaining from the previous reporting period) for the urban water system.

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claims on the region's groundwater held on behalf of the urban water system. It includes adjustment and forfeiture of groundwater allocation announced or otherwise recognised during the reporting period (or remaining from the previous reporting period) for the urban water system.

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claims to water held on behalf of the urban water system other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Leakage from the urban water system to the landscape. It includes non-potable, potable and recycled water supply system pipe bursts and wastewater collection system overflows. It excludes background leakage, which is included in line item 19.3 Leakage to groundwater.

This definition applies to:

Decreases of physical and non-physical urban water system assets other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Leakage from either the surface water, urban system or irrigation scheme to the region's groundwater. It excludes pipe bursts, overflows or spills, which are classified as leakage to landscape.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of water from the region's urban water system to urban users. It includes non-potable, potable and recycled water supplied from the region's urban water system for residential, commercial, industrial, municipal and individual irrigation use. It excludes delivery of water to the region's irrigation schemes where those are part of the water accounting region.

This definition applies to:

Discharge from the urban water system to the region's surface water. It includes:

• non-potable, potable, treated wastewater and recycled water discharge to surface water

• pump back or transfer back of water to surface water for the purpose of storage. It includes releases to meet environmental requirements

• pump back or transfer of water to off-channel water storages that are part of the urban water supply system.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of water from the urban water system to the region's irrigation scheme without prior commitment to deliver water having been recognised.

This definition applies to:

Discharge of treated wastewater out of the region. This definition includes discharge to sea and to other regions.

This definition applies to:

Discharge of treated wastewater other than that defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

The volume of water intentionally transferred to ground water assets (e.g. via injection wells) from other water assets: either surface water, urban water system or irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

Portion of the groundwater that is contained in an aquifer that is not overlain by a confining bed and whose upper surface is a water table free to fluctuate in equilibrium with atmospheric pressure. It includes all types of unconfined aquifers, including fractured rock and sedimentary.

This definition applies to:

Portion of the groundwater that is contained in an aquifer overlain by a confining bed. A confining bed acts as a barrier to water flow. Pressure in an underlying aquifer is typically greater than atmospheric pressure. It includes all types of confined aquifers, including fractured rock and sedimentary.

This definition applies to:

Claims to water outside the region held on behalf of the groundwater. It includes claims resulting from:

• allocations announced under entitlements to access a water resource located outside the region

• inter-government agreements at allocation (retail) level.

It excludes claims resulting from:

• inter-government agreements to share water before it is allocated

• water traded into the region.

This definition applies to:

Claim to water held on behalf of the groundwater, following an overdraft of groundwater allocation by an allocation holder that is not part of the water accounting region. This can be thought of as an advance draw.

It includes overdraft by private allocation holders.

It only includes overdraft by urban water system and irrigation schemes when those are not part of the water accounting region.

This definition applies to:

Physical and non-physical groundwater assets other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Movement of water from the region's irrigation scheme to the atmosphere (water vapour).

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claim to water resulting from water traded into the region on behalf of the irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claim to desalinated sea water on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It excludes claims on behalf of the surface water, which are reported in line item 17.19 Decrease of claim on desalinated water.

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claims on the region's surface water held on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It includes adjustment and forfeiture of surface water allocation announced or otherwise recognised during the reporting period (or remaining from the previous reporting period) for the irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claims on the region's groundwater held on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It includes adjustment and forfeiture of groundwater allocation announced or otherwise recognised during the reporting period (or remaining from the previous reporting period) for the irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claims to water held on behalf of the irrigation scheme other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Decreases of physical and non-physical irrigation scheme water assets other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Leakage from the irrigation scheme to the landscape. It includes leakage from irrigation scheme pipes and channel bursts and overflows. It excludes background leakage, which is included in line item 20.3 Leakage to groundwater.

This definition applies to:

Leakage from either the surface water, urban system or irrigation scheme to the region's groundwater. It excludes pipe bursts, overflows or spills, which are classified as leakage to landscape.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of water from the region's irrigation scheme to users. It excludes delivery of water to the region's urban water system where it is part of the water accounting region.

This definition applies to:

Discharge from the irrigation scheme to the region's surface water. It includes point return from irrigation scheme (see [line item 9.5 Point return from irrigation scheme1203).

This definition applies to:

Water transferred out of the region or delivered to users from the irrigation scheme under a recognised commitment, including result of water trade, to deliver water. It excludes commitments in favour of the surface water, groundwater and urban water system where those have been identified as water assets of the region.

This definition applies to:

Water delivered from the irrgigation scheme under a recognised commitment other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Decrease of claim to water outside the region on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It includes adjustment and forfeiture of claim resulting from:

• allocations announced under entitlements to access a water resource located outside the region

• other agreements at allocation (retail) level.

It excludes claims resulting from:

• water traded into the region.

This definition applies to:

Surface water allocation announcement on behalf of users other than the urban water system. It includes allocation announcements for:

• private users and irrigation schemes where those are not identified as a water asset of the water accounting region

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

It excludes allocation announcements for:

• irrigation schemes where those are identified as a water asset of the water accounting region (reported in line item 21.3 Surface water allocation announcements - irrigation scheme).

This definition applies to:

Surface water allocation announcement on behalf the urban water system. It includes allocation announcements for:

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

This definition applies to:

Surface water allocation announcement on behalf of irrigation schemes where those are identified as a water asset of the water accounting region. It excludes allocation announcements for:

• irrigation scheme where those are considered as users not part of the water assets of the water accounting region (reported in line item 21.1 Surface water allocation announcements).

This definition applies to:

Increase of commitment on the region's surface water to deliver water outside the region. It includes increase of commitments resulting from:

• inter-government agreements at allocation (retail) level.

It excludes increase of commitments resulting from:

• inter-government agreements to share water before it is allocated

• water traded out of the region

• water allocated in the region that is subsequently transferred out of the region (reported in line items 21.1- surface water allocation announcements, 21.21364 or 21.31365.)

This definition applies to:

Increase of commitment on the region's surface water to deliver water to another region as a result of trade between both regions.

This definition applies to:

Increase of surface water liability other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Groundwater allocation announcement on behalf of users other than the urban water system. It includes allocation announcements for:

• private users and irrigation schemes where those are not identified as a water asset of the water accounting region

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

It excludes allocation announcements for:

• irrigation schemes where those are identified as a water asset of the water accounting region (reported in line item 22.3 Groundwater allocation announcements - irrigation scheme).

This definition applies to:

Groundwater allocation announcement on behalf the urban water system. It includes allocation announcements for:

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

This definition applies to:

Groundwater allocation announcement on behalf of irrigation schemes where those are identified as a water asset of the water accounting region.

It excludes allocation announcements for:

• irrigation scheme where those are considered as users not part of the water assets of the water accounting region (reported in line item 22.1 Groundwater allocation announcements).

This definition applies to:

Increase of commitment on the region's groundwater to deliver water outside the region. It includes increase of commitments resulting from:

• inter-government agreements at allocation (retail) level

It excludes increase of commitments resulting from:

• inter-government agreements to share water before it is allocated

• water traded out of the region

• water allocated in the region that is subsequently transferred out of the region (reported in line items 22.1 - groundwater allocation announcements, 22.2 - groundwater allocation announcements - urban system or 22.3 - groundwater allocation announcements - irrigation scheme).

This definition applies to:

Increase of commitment on the region's groundwater to deliver water to another region as a result of trade between both regions.

This definition applies to:

Increase of groundwater liability other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Increase of commitment, including result of water trade, on the region's urban water system to deliver water to urban water users or to other urban water systems outside the region. It excludes increase of commitments in favour of the surface water, groundwater and irrigation scheme where those have been identified as water assets of the region.

This definition applies to:

Urban water system liability increases other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Increase of commitment, including result of water trade, on the region's irrigation scheme to deliver water to users or to other irrigation schemes outside the region. It excludes commitments in favour of the surface water, groundwater and urban water system where those have been identified as water assets of the region.

This definition applies to:

Irrigation scheme liability increases other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

The volume necessary to reconcile the opening water storage and closing water storage with the total water inflows and total water outflows reported in the water accounting statements. This definition recognises that in the 2011 Account, there is no uncertainty attached to the values of the line items associated with water liabilities (commitments on water) and non-physical water assets (claims to water).

This definition applies to:

Water in the unsaturated zone of the soil profile.

This definition applies to:

Water from flood events stored on flood plains.

This definition applies to:

Other water bodies, of natural origin, for which the primary purpose is not abstractive or consumptive use. It may include water in natural lakes, ponds, lagoons, wetlands, billabongs and groundwater-fed water bodies that are not classified as storages based on their primary purpose.

This definition applies to:

Water in constructed storages not connected, either seasonally or perennially, to rivers. Storages are filled predominantly by harvesting local catchment runoff. Other water sources include abstractions from surface water and groundwater. It includes off-channel farm dams and industrial, commercial and mining water storages. It excludes:

• on-channel farm dams, industrial, commercial and mining water storages

• off-channel storages operated to supply urban water systems (included in line item 3.1 Urban water supply system).

This definition applies to:

Water stored in on-site infrastructure primarily designed to collect rainfall.

This definition applies to:

Water stored in off-channel water other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

All forms in which water falls on the region's landscape as rain, sleet, snow, hail, or drizzle. It excludes water that falls on the region's surface water, urban water system and irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

Movement of water from the region's landscape water to the atmosphere (water vapour). It excludes evaporation from the region's surface water, groundwater, urban water system and irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

Runoff water harvested into off-channel water storages.

This definition applies to:

Decreases in landscape water other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Water in the urban potable and non-potable water supply system, including pipes and tanks and off-stream ponds, which regulate water flow for operational purpose and not medium to long term water storage. It includes water in off-channel water storages that has already been abstracted by the region's urban water utilities, including dead storage capacity. It excludes recycled water.

This definition applies to:

Physical and non-physical urban water system assets other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Water in the urban wastewater collection system, including wastewater lagoons and ponds, pipes, tanks, pits, sumps and storages.

This definition applies to:

Treated effluent water from wastewater treatment plants or sewer mining operations fit for recycled use and contained in the recycled water supply, including pipes, tanks and storages.

This definition applies to:

Claims to water outside the region on behalf of the urban water system. It includes claims resulting from:

• allocations announced under entitlements to access a water resource located outside the region

• other agreements at allocation (retail) level.

It excludes claims resulting from:

• water traded into the region.

This definition applies to:

Claim to water resulting from water traded into the region on behalf of the urban water system.

This definition applies to:

Claim to desalinated sea water on behalf of the urban water system. It excludes claims on behalf of the surface water, which are reported in line item 1.7 Claim on desalinated water.

This definition applies to:

Claim to surface water within the region on behalf of the urban water system. It includes volume of surface water allocation remaining held by the region's urban utilities.

This definition applies to:

Claim to groundwater within the region on behalf of the urban water system. It includes volume of groundwater allocation remaining held by the region's urban utilities.

This definition applies to:

Claims to water on behalf of the urban water system other than those included elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

All forms in which water falls on the region's off-channel water store as rain, sleet, snow, hail, or drizzle. It includes precipitation on off-channel water storages and collected into rainwater tanks. It excludes precipitation on the region's landscape, surface water, urban water system and irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

Discharge of water from the region's groundwater into off-channel water storages.

This definition applies to:

Runoff water harvested into off-channel water storages.

This definition applies to:

Surface water diverted into off-channel water storages under water access entitlements or other statutory water rights. This definition includes surface water allocations diverted into farm dams for the purpose of storage.

This definition applies to:

Groundwater diverted into off-channel water storages under water access entitlements or other statutory water rights. This definition includes surface water allocations diverted into farm dams for the purpose of storage.

This definition applies to:

Increases in off-channel water other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Movement of water from the region's off-channel water store to the atmosphere (water vapour). It excludes evaporation from the region's landscape water, surface water, groundwater, urban water system and irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

Leakage from off-channel water storages into the region's groundwater.

This definition applies to:

Abstraction of water from the off-channel water store for use.

This definition applies to:

Decreases in off-channel water other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Water rights granted by a jurisdiction on the surface water resource, external to an entitlement system. These rights may be granted under a State Water Act or a water plan. They include land owner basic rights, riparian rights and non-entitled water rights for stock and domestic and mining purposes. In the National Water Account, no commitment to deliver water (water liability) is recognised for these water rights.

This definition applies to:

Water access entitlements on issue granted on the surface water resource, for which no allocation (water liability) has been recognised. They include unregulated entitlement on issue in unregulated systems and in regulated systems. Unregulated flows accessed outside the normal allocation process in regulated systems are referred to as supplementary water in New South Wales.

This definition applies to:

Water access entitlements on issue granted on the surface water resource, for which an allocation (water liability) has been recognised. They include regulated entitlement.

This definition applies to:

Surface water rights other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Water rights granted by a jurisdiction on the groundwater resource, external to an entitlement system. These rights may be granted under a State Water Act or a water plan. They include land owner basic rights and non-entitled water rights for stock and domestic and mining purposes. In the National Water Account, no commitment to deliver water (water liability) is recognised for these water rights.

This definition applies to:

Water access entitlements on issue granted on the groundwater resource for which no allocation (water liability) has been recognised.

This definition applies to:

Water access entitlements on issue granted on the groundwater resource, for which an allocation (water liability) has been recognised. They include regulated entitlement. They include entitlements for which the entitled volume has been recognised as a water liability, although there was no formal allocation announcement.

This definition applies to:

Groundwater rights other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Water access entitlements on issue that grant access to either surface water or groundwater.

This definition applies to:

Approved transaction to transfer perpetually a surface water access entitlement between legal entities located within the region's boundary, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

Approved transaction to transfer perpetually a surface water access entitlement from a legal entity located outside the region's boundary to a legal entity located within the region's geographic boundary, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

Approved transaction to transfer perpetually a surface water access entitlement from a legal entity located within the region's boundary to a legal entity located outside the region's geographic boundary, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

Approved transaction to transfer for a specified term a surface water access entitlement between legal entities located within the region's boundary, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

Approved transaction to transfer for a specified term a surface water access entitlement from a legal entity located outside the region's boundary to a legal entity located within the region's boundary, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

Approved transaction to transfer for a specified term a surface water access entitlement from a legal entity located within the region's boundary to a legal entity located outside the region's boundary, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

Transfer of surface water allocation between legal entities located within the region's boundary, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

Transfer of surface water allocation from a legal entity located outside the region's boundary to a legal entity located within the region's boundary, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

Transfer of surface water allocation from a legal entity located within the region's boundary to a legal entity located outside the region's boundary, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

Approved transaction to transfer perpetually a groundwater access entitlement between legal entities located within the region's boundary, with or without a change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

Approved transaction to transfer perpetually a groundwater access entitlement from a legal entity located outside the region's boundary to a legal entity located within the region's boundary, with or without a change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

Approved transaction to transfer perpetually a groundwater access entitlement from a legal entity located within the region's boundary to a legal entity located outside the region's boundary, with or without a change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

Approved transaction to transfer for a specified term a groundwater access entitlement between legal entities located within the region's boundary, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

Approved transaction to transfer for a specified term a groundwater access entitlement from a legal entity located outside the region's boundary to a legal entity located within the region's boundary, with or without change in location of the abstraction

This definition applies to:

Approved transaction to transfer for a specified term a groundwater access entitlement from a legal entity located within the region's boundary to a legal entity located outside the region's boundary, with or without change in location of the abstraction

This definition applies to:

Water in the irrigation water supply and collection system, including pipes, artificial channels and tanks. It includes water in off-channel water storages that has already been abstracted by the region's irrigation scheme, including dead storage capacity. It excludes water in private channels and storages, already abstracted from the scheme by individual irrigators.

This definition applies to:

Claims to water outside the region on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It includes claims resulting from:

• allocations announced under entitlements to access a water resource located outside the region

• other agreements at allocation (retail) level.

It excludes claims resulting from:

• water traded into the region.

This definition applies to:

Claim to water resulting from water traded into the region on behalf of the irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

Claim to desalinated sea water on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It excludes claims on behalf of the surface water, which are reported in line item 1.7 Claim on desalinated water.

This definition applies to:

Claim to surface water within the region on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It includes volume of surface water allocation remaining held by the region's irrigation entities.

This definition applies to:

Claim to groundwater within the region on behalf of the irrigation scheme. It includes volume of groundwater allocation remaining held by the region's irrigation entities.

This definition applies to:

Claims to water on behalf of the irrigation scheme other than those included elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Physical and non-physical irrigation scheme water assets other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Transfer of groundwater allocation between legal entities located within the region's boundary, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

Transfer of groundwater allocation from a legal entity located outside the region's boundary to a legal entity located within the region's boundary, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

Transfer of groundwater allocation from a legal entity located within the region's boundary to a legal entity located outside the region's boundary, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

All forms in which water falls on the region's water storages as rain, sleet, snow, hail, or drizzle. The value can include all or part of the water storages reported under line item 1.1 Storage.

This definition applies to:

Groundwater discharge to the region's water storages. The value can include all or part of the water storages reported under line item 1.1 Storage.

This definition applies to:

Water that rans off into the region's water storages. It includes river flow into the water storages and runoff flowing directly from the landscape into the storages. The value can include all or part of the water storages reported under line item 1.1 Storages.

This definition applies to:

Water transferred via infrastructure into the water storages under any type of water access entitlement or other arrangement. The value can include all or part of the water storages reported under line item 1.1 Storage.

This definition applies to:

Inflows into water storages other than those defined elsewhere. The value can include all or part of the water storages reported under line item 1.1 Storage.

This definition applies to:

Movement of water from the region's water storages to the atmosphere (water vapour). The value can include all or part of the water storages reported under line item 1.1 Storage.

This definition applies to:

Infiltration from the water storages to the region's groundwater. It includes the deliberate recharge of groundwater from water storages. The value can include all or part of the water storages reported under line item 1.1 Storage.

This definition applies to:

Leakage from the water storages to the soil. It excludes recharge to groundwater. The value can include all or part of the water storages reported under line item 1.1 Storage.

This definition applies to:

Overflow from water storages via spillway and leakage through a dams' wall into downstream river. The value can include all or part of the water storages reported under line item 1.1 Storage.

This definition applies to:

Releases from water storages into a downstream river under any type of water access entitlement or other arrangement. It includes releases to provide environmental benefit and responses to calls on announced allocation. The value can include all or part of the water storages reported under line item 1.1 Storage.

This definition applies to:

Diversions via infrastructure from water storages under any type of water access entitlement or other arrangement. It includes diversions within the region and out of the region. It excludes releases to a downstream river. The value can include all or part of the water storages reported under line item 1.1 Storage.

This definition applies to:

Outflows from water storages other than those defined elsewhere. The value can include all or part of the water storages reported under line item 1.1 Storage.

This definition applies to:

Surface water allocation remaining on behalf of users other than the urban water system. It includes allocations remaining for:

• private users and irrigation schemes where those are not identified as a water asset of the water accounting region

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

It excludes allocations remaining for:

• irrigation schemes where those are identified as a water asset of the water accounting region (reported in line item 5.3 surface water allocation remaining - irrigation scheme).

This definition applies to:

Surface water allocation remaining on behalf the urban water system. It includes allocations remaining for: • allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

This definition applies to:

Surface water allocation remaining on behalf of irrigation schemes where those are identified as water asset of the water accounting region. It excludes allocations remaining for:

• irrigation scheme where those are considered as users not part of the water assets of the water accounting region (reported in line item 5.1 surface water allocation remaining).

This definition applies to:

Commitment on the region's surface water to deliver water outside the region. It includes commitments resulting from:

• inter-government agreements at allocation (retail) level.

It excludes commitments resulting from:

• inter-government agreements to share water before it is allocated

• water traded out of the region

• water allocated in the region that is subsequently transferred out of the region. Such commitment is reported as line item 5.1, 5.2 or 5.3.

This definition applies to:

Commitment on the region's surface water to deliver water to another region as a result of trade between both regions.

This definition applies to:

Surface water liability other than those defined elsewhere. It does not include rules-based obligation, such as a commitment to ensure minimum passing flows to a downstream region.

This definition applies to:

Groundwater allocation remaining on behalf of users other than the urban water system. It includes allocations remaining for:

• private users and irrigation schemes where those are not identified as a water asset of the water accounting region

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

It excludes allocations remaining for:

• irrigation schemes where those are identified as a+F805 water asset of the water accounting region (reported in line item 6.3 Groundwater allocation remaining - irrigation scheme).

This definition applies to:

Groundwater allocation remaining on behalf the urban water system. It includes allocations remaining for:

• allocation holders located outside the region's boundary.

This definition applies to:

Groundwater allocation remaining on behalf of irrigation schemes where those are identified as a water asset of the water accounting region. It excludes allocations remaining for:

• irrigation scheme where those are considered as users not part of the water assets of the water accounting region (reported in line item 6.1 Groundwater allocation remaining).

This definition applies to:

Commitment on the region's groundwater to deliver water outside the region. It includes commitments resulting from:

• inter-government agreements at allocation (retail) level.

It excludes commitments resulting from:

• inter-government agreements to share water before it is allocated

• water traded out of the region

• water allocated in the region that is subsequently transferred out of the region. Such commitment is reported as line item 6.1- groundwater allocation remaining, 6.2- groundwater allocation remaining - urban water system or 6.3- groundwater allocation remaining - irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

Commitment on the region's groundwater to deliver water to another region as a result of trade between both regions.

This definition applies to:

Groundwater liability other than those defined elsewhere. It does not include rules-based obligation, such as a commitment to maintain groundwater at a certain level.

This definition applies to:

Commitment, including result of water trade, on the region's urban water system to deliver water to urban water users or to other urban water systems outside the region. It excludes commitments in favour of the surface water, groundwater and irrigation scheme where those have been identified as water assets of the region.

This definition applies to:

Urban water system liability other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Commitment, including result of water trade, on the region's irrigation scheme to deliver water to users or to other irrigation schemes outside the region. It excludes commitments in favour of the surface water, groundwater and urban water system where those have been identified as water assets of the region.

This definition applies to:

Irrigation scheme liability other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

All forms in which water falls on the region's surface water as rain, sleet, snow, hail, or drizzle.

This definition applies to:

Discharge of water by a user to the region's surface water done directly and not through the urban or irrigation collection systems. It includes discharge of water that has been self-abstracted or delivered through an urban or irrigation water supply system.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of imported water to the region's surface water to service a prior claim recognised on behalf of the surface water. The prior claim may be an inter-basin agreement or an announced allocation held on a water resource located outside the region, but excludes water trade (see line item 9.12 Delivery of traded water).

This definition applies to:

Delivery of water into the region's surface water to service a prior claim resulting from water traded into the region (see line item 9.16 Increase of claim on water traded into the region).

This definition applies to:

Delivery of desalinated sea water to the region's surface water to service a prior claim recognised on behalf of the surface water. It excludes delivery of desalinated sea water where no prior claim has been recognised (see line item 9.8 Delivery of desalinated water).

This definition applies to:

Delivery of water to the region's surface water other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Increase of claims to water outside the region on behalf of the surface water. It includes claims resulting from:

• an announced allocation held on a water resource located outside the region

• inter-government agreements at allocation (retail) level.

It excludes claims resulting from:

• inter-government agreements to share water before it is allocated

• water traded into the region

• contract to deliver desalinated sea water.

This definition applies to:

Increase of claim held on behalf of the surface water resulting from water traded into the region.

This definition applies to:

Increase of claim to desalinated sea water held on behalf of the surface water. It excludes increase of claim held on behalf of the urban water system (see line item 11.17 Increase of urban claim on desalinated water).

This definition applies to:

Increase of claim held on behalf of the region's surface water other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

Increases of physical and non-physical surface water assets other than those defined elsewhere.

This definition applies to:

River inflow that enters the region.

This definition applies to:

Groundwater discharge to the region's surface water.

This definition applies to:

Runoff from landscape to the region's surface water due to rainfall or irrigation.

This definition applies to:

Point discharge from irrigation scheme to the region's surface water. It includes overflows from irrigation scheme water supply channels and discharge of used irrigation water from irrigation scheme collection systems.

This definition applies to:

Return of flood waters from the flood plains. It excludes flood waters returning from seasonally connected wetlands and other surface water bodies.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of imported water to the region's surface water where no prior claim has been recognised on behalf of the surface water.

This definition applies to:

Delivery of desalinated sea water to the region's surface water where no prior claim has been recognised on behalf of the surface water.

This definition applies to:

Discharge from urban water systems to the region's surface water. It includes discharge of non-potable, potable, treated wastewater and recycled water. It includes pump back or transfer back of water to surface water for the purpose of storage and releases to meet environmental requirements. It excludes pump back or transfer of water to off-channel water storages considered part of the urban water system (see line item 3.1 Urban water supply system).

This definition applies to:

Includes but is not limited to, responsibilities under legislation, regulations or operational plans. It also means the responsibility to provide information that enable users to make informed judgements about the management of water resources.

This definition applies to:

Recording and reporting the effects of transactions, transformations and other events when the decision or commitments that give rise to them occur. This may not necessarily be the time at which water is physically transacted, transferred or transformed. Accrual water accounting ensures that transactions, transformations and other events are recorded in and reported in the reporting periods to which they relate.

This definition applies to:

Australian Capital Territory

This definition applies to:

An event that occurs between the end of the reporting period and the date when the Accountability Statement is signed that provides evidence of conditions that existed at the end of the reporting period.

This definition applies to:

Adjustments made to allocation carryover. For example, amounts written off as a result of the operation of rules or upon agreement between the allocation owner and the body responsible for managing water in the region.

This definition applies to:

The distance in kilometres, measured along the middle of a watercourse that a specific point in the watercourse is from the watercourse’s mouth or junction with the main watercourse.

This definition applies to:

annual exceedance probability

The probability that a given rainfall total accumulated over a given duration will be exceeded in any one year.

The sum of volumes held in water storages that are within a region or associated with a city or system. Each water storage can contribute up to its accessible storage capacity to the aggregated volume. In some cases only a portion of the water in a storage is shared with a city or system.

Related FAQ

This definition applies to:

Australian Height Datum

The datum that sets mean sea level as zero elevation. Mean sea level was determined from observations recorded by 30 tide gauges around the coast of the Australian continent for the period 1966 – 68. See Geoscience Australia for further information.

Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric (Geofabric)

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related: Geofabric

This definition applies to:

Australian Integrated Forecast System

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

The specific volume of water allocated to water access entitlements in a given water year or allocated as specified within a water resource plan.

Synonym: water allocation

This definition applies to:

Context 2

The specific volume of water allocated to water access entitlements in a given season, given accounting period, defined according to rules established in the relevant water plan.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

Announcement of water allocations arising due to seasonal determinations of surface water to be available under water access entitlements.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

Announcement of water allocations arising due to seasonal determinations of water to be available under water access entitlements.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

Water allocated in a reporting period in accordance with a water resource management instrument that is yet to be accessed, taken or delivered at the reporting date and is able to be carried over to the next reporting period.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

Water allocated during the water year of an entitlement that is yet to be accessed, taken or delivered at the end of the water year and is able to be carried over to the next water year. Where the water year coincides with the National Water Account reporting period allocation carryover equates to allocation remaining.

This definition applies to:

Context 3

Water allocated during the water year of an entitlement that is yet to be accessed, abstracted or delivered at the end of the water year and is able to be carried over to the next water year. Where the water year coincides with the National Water Account reporting period allocation carryover equates to allocation remaining.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

The volume of surface water outflows delivered or otherwise taken to settle allocation or claim liabilities. When used as a high level term can also include the volume of groundwater abstracted to settle allocation liabilities.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

The volume of surface water abstracted to settle an allocation or other claim on the surface water.

This definition applies to:

The volume of groundwater abstracted to settle an allocation or other claim on the groundwater.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

Water allocated in a reporting period (or remaining from the previous reporting period) that is yet to be accessed, taken or delivered at the end of the reporting period and is not forfeited. Where the National Water Account reporting period coincides with the entitlement’s water year, allocation remaining equates to allocation carryover.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

Water allocated in a reporting period (or remaining from the previous reporting period) that is yet to be accessed, abstracted or delivered at the end of the reporting period and is not forfeited. Where the National Water Account reporting period coincides with the entitlement’s water year, allocation remaining equates to allocation carryover.

This definition applies to:

The specific volume of water allocated to water access entitlements.

This definition applies to:

The plain or flat land area adjacent to a stream or river (or the prior course of a stream or river) composed of unconsolidated sedimentary deposits (alluvium) subject to periodic inundation by the stream (either now or in the past).

Related: floodplain

This definition applies to:

A valley filled with alluvial stream deposits.

Source: © McGraw-Hill,1994, Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, Editor: Parker, SP, 5th edition, McGraw-Hill Professional, New York.

This definition applies to:

Loose, unconsolidated (not cemented together into a solid rock), soil or sediments (from sands to large boulders), eroded, deposited and reshaped by water in some form in a non-marine setting.

This definition applies to:

Adopted Middle Thread Distance

This definition applies to:

Australian National Committee on Large Dams

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

A number, expressed as a percentage, which is used to determine the maximum volume of water that may be taken in a water year.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

A number, expressed as a percentage, which is used to determine the maximum volume of water that may be accessed in a water year.

This definition applies to:

The probability that a given rainfall total accumulated over a given duration will be exceeded in any one year.

Related: average recurrence interval (ARI)

This definition applies to:

The deviation of a measurable unit, (e.g, temperature or precipitation) from the long-term average in a given region over a specified period.

This definition applies to:

Water present in the soil prior to a rainfall event

Related: soil moisture

This definition applies to:

Australian National University

Related: ANUDEM

This definition applies to:

A computer program developed by the ANU for processing data into a digital elevation model.

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related: ANU

This definition applies to:

Topologically connected flow direction streamlines developed by ANU using ANUDEM.

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related:

This definition applies to:

Australia New Zealand Land Information Council

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

A geological formation or group of formations; able to receive, store and transmit significant quantities of water.

Synonym: aquifer

This definition applies to:

Context 2

An underground layer of saturated rock, sand or gravel that absorbs water and allows it free passage through pore spaces.

Source: Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality (2000)

Synonym: aquifer

This definition applies to:

A geological formation that may contain groundwater but is not capable of transmitting significant quantities of it under normal hydraulic gradients. May function as a confining bed.

This definition applies to:

A range of software programs developed by ESRI for spatial data analysis, processing and storage.

Related: GIS

This definition applies to:

A data model and tools published by ESRI for analysis of hydrological data.

This definition applies to:

average recurrence interval

The average or expected value of the periods between exceedances of a given rainfall total accumulated over a given duration. It is implicit in this definition that the periods between exceedances are generally random.

Australian rainfall and runoff

This definition applies to:

A geological structural feature or combination of such features in which water is confined under pressure.

Source: © Macquarie Dictionary Fifth Edition, 2009, Macquarie Dictionary Publishers

This definition applies to:

Australian Soil Resource Information System

This definition applies to:

To provide independent attestation that the reports have been prepared in accordance with approved water accounting standards and other approved pronouncements governing the content of the reports and are consistent with the concepts in the Water Accounting Conceptual Framework. Assurance reduces the risk that the information provided is incorrect.

This definition applies to:

A physical feature that is the mixture of gases surrounding the planet.

Source: Bureau glossary

This definition applies to:

Auditing and Assurance Standards Board

This definition applies to:

Flow directed and topological connected surface hydrology data derived from Geoscience Australia GEODATA series.

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related:

This definition applies to:

The datum that sets mean sea level as zero elevation. Mean sea level was determined from observations recorded by 30 tide gauges around the coast of the Australian continent for the period 1966 – 68. See Geoscience Australia for further information.

This definition applies to:

A specialised Geographic Information System (GIS) that identifies the spatial relationships of important hydrological features such as rivers, lakes, reservoirs, dams, canals and catchments.

Source: Geofabric website

Related:

This definition applies to:

A perpetual or ongoing entitlement, by or under a law of a State, to exclusive access to a share of the water resources of a water resource plan area or other water management area.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

The specific volume of water allocated to an Australian water access entitlement in a given water accounting period.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

Established in 1962, the Australian Water Resources Council (AWRC) was set up by the Commonwealth and Sate Governments as a non-statutory body. The council existed into the 1980s.

Source: National Library of Australia

This definition applies to:

The average or expected value of the periods between exceedances of a given rainfall total accumulated over a given duration. It is implicit in this definition that the periods between exceedances are generally random.

Related: annual exceedance probability (AEP)

This definition applies to:

Australian Water Resources Assessment

This definition applies to:

A part of the AWRA Modelling System developed by CSIRO under the WIRADA alliance with the Bureau of Meteorology that represents landscape water balance.

This definition applies to:

Australian Water Resources Council

This definition applies to:

Australian Water Resources Information System

This definition applies to:

Land not covered by vegetation that does not fall into any other land use/cover category. It includes eroded areas and construction sites.

This definition applies to:

The component of streamflow supplied by groundwater discharge.

This definition applies to:

A tract of country, generally larger catchment areas, drained by a river and its tributaries.

This definition applies to:

A modelling system that uses statistical methods to produce predictions of seasonal streamflows. BJP was developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). See the Seasonal Streamflow Forecast Research papers section for more information.

Alt text

This definition applies to:

Bayesian joint probability

A modelling system that uses statistical methods to produce predictions of seasonal streamflows. BJP was developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). See the Seasonal Streamflow Forecast Research papers section for more information.

Alt text

The typical depiction of a river or stream in a cartographic product.

This definition applies to:

A hole drilled in the ground, a well or any other excavation used to access groundwater. May be used for observation of groundwater (including water level, pressure or water quality).

This definition applies to:

Farms or industries engaged in the production of grains, oilseeds and other crops (especially wheat, barley, peas, sorghum, maize, hemp, safflower and sunflower), or the grazing of livestock for meat or wool, on a large scale.

Source: © Organisation for Ecomonic Co-operation and Development, Glossary of Statistical Terms, Viewed 5 October 2011, http://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=235

This definition applies to:

The volume of water diverted from streams and storages (surface water) or extracted from bores (groundwater) by water providers for various uses.

This definition applies to:

A water access entitlement allowing an infrastructure operator to access, take and hold water for the supply of water to another person.

This definition applies to:

The aggregation of individual rights into a single right. These might include but are not limited to: land property title, water access entitlement, water allocations, water use rights, delivery rights, irrigation rights and works approvals.

Equivalent: water market equivalent terms

This definition applies to:

Bureau of Meteorology

This definition applies to:

A period commencing at the beginning of a day of one of the 12 months of the year and ending immediately before the beginning of the corresponding day of the next month or, if there is no such corresponding day, ending at the expiration of the next month.

Source: Acts Interpretation Act 1901 Part V 22

This definition applies to:

The volume of water that a water storage can hold between the minimum supply level and full supply level; equal to the total storage capacity excluding the dead storage capacity. It is the sum of this capacity that is reported for a collection of water storages. See the water storage diagram for more information.

Synonym: accessible storage capacity

This definition applies to:

The zone of soil moisture above the water table where water is drawn upwards by capillary tension in which the water is at less than atmospheric pressure.

Source: Richardson, S., et al., (2011). Australian groundwater-dependent ecosystem toolbox part 1: assessment framework, Waterlines report, National Water Commission, Canberra

This definition applies to:

The land area draining to a point of interest, such as a water storage or monitoring site on a watercourse.

Related: water storage

This definition applies to:

The extent of land where water from precipitation drains into the water storage.

This definition applies to:

A person specified as a Category A person in the document titled Persons and Classes of Persons

Related FAQ

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Regulation 1.03

This definition applies to:

A person specified as a Category B person in the document titled Persons and Classes of Persons

Related FAQ

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Regulation 1.03

This definition applies to:

A person specified as a Category C person in the document titled Persons and Classes of Persons

Related FAQ

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Regulation 1.03

This definition applies to:

A person specified as a Category D person in the document titled Persons and Classes of Persons

Related FAQ

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Regulation 1.03

This definition applies to:

A person specified as a Category E person in the document titled Persons and Classes of Persons

Related FAQ

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Regulation 1.03

This definition applies to:

A person specified as a Category F person in the document titled Persons and Classes of Persons

Related FAQ

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Regulation 1.03

This definition applies to:

A person specified as a Category G person in the document titled Persons and Classes of Persons

Related FAQ

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Regulation 1.03

This definition applies to:

A person specified as a Category H person in the document titled Persons and Classes of Persons

Related FAQ

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Regulation 1.03

This definition applies to:

computerised design IFD rainfall system

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

The change in net water assets for the water report entity from one reporting date to the next.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

The change in net water assets for the region from one reporting date to the next.

This definition applies to:

The change in net water storage for the region from one report date to the next.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

Increases or decreases in the water report entity’s water assets from one reporting date to the next.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

Increases or decreases in the region’s water assets from one reporting date to the next.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

Increases or decreases in the water report entity’s water liabilities from one reporting date to the next.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

Increases or decreases in the region’s water liabilities from one reporting date to the next.

This definition applies to:

The change in water storage for a water report entity from one reporting date to the next.

This definition applies to:

An artificial or constructed waterway designed to convey water. Often described as open channels to distinguish then from pipes, channels can be categorised as: main (or major) channels whose primary purpose is to convey bulk water from headworks storage or river diversion points into the distribution system; or distribution channels whose primary purpose is to deliver water from main channels to individual farms. The term canal may sometimes be used for main channels that are used for other purposes than just conveyance of bulk water, such as recreation or transport.

Source: NWC Water Dictionary

This definition applies to:

A right to water or an interest or claim associated with a right to water.

This definition applies to:

Adjustments to claims to water in the region. For example, amounts written off as a result of the operation of rules or upon agreement between the relevant parties.

This definition applies to:

The average long term weather conditions in a particular area. See the Weather and Climate pages for more information.

This definition applies to:

The condition of the climate (e.g. rainfall, temperature, humidity) over a particular period such as a year or a month.

This definition applies to:

Net water assets at the end of the reporting period.

Related: net water assets

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

The total water storage in water assets in the region at the end of the reporting period.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

The total water storage for a water report entity at the reporting date.

This definition applies to:

The total amount of metered and estimated non-metered, potable and non-potable, water supplied to commercial properties.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

Adherence to relevant externally-imposed requirements, or with broader notions of best practice relevant to water reporting entities, such as statutory requirements, regulations, rules, ordinances, or directives, in respect of which non-compliance may have, or may have had, an economic, environmental or social effect.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

A platform independent model for showing the entities and relationship between the features of interest generally described using UML.

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related: UML

This definition applies to:

Context 2

Documentation of a conceptual understanding of the location of GDEs and interaction between ecosystems and groundwater.

Source: Richardson, S., et al., (2011). Australian groundwater-dependent ecosystem toolbox part 1: assessment framework, Waterlines report, National Water Commission, Canberra

This definition applies to:

An aquifer overlain by a confining bed. The confining bed has a significantly lower hydraulic conductivity than the aquifer. Typically groundwater in a confined aquifer is under pressure significantly greater than atmospheric pressure.

This definition applies to:

All the surface water bodies connected to the river channel network, with the exception of the off-channel but connected man-made water structures.

This definition applies to:

Decreases in connected surface water due to natural processes or diversion of water.

This definition applies to:

Increases in connected surface water due to natural processes or return of water.

This definition applies to:

Volume of physical inflows to connected surface water during the reporting period; from outside the region or from other stores.

This definition applies to:

Volume of physical outflows from connected surface water during the reporting period; to outside the region or to other stores.

This definition applies to:

Comprises all the surface water bodies connected, either seasonally or perennially, to the river channel network that are administered by the jurisdictions. Also includes any other surface water body which contains water not yet ‘abstracted’, such as storages managed by organisations to provide water to urban centres.

This definition applies to:

An obligation that derives from actions of the management of a water report entity whereby: a) an established pattern of past practice, published policies or sufficiently specific current statement means that the management of the water report entity has indicated to other parties that it will accept certain responsibilities; and b) as a result, a valid expectation has been created on the part of those other parties that the management of the water report entity will discharge those responsibilities.

This definition applies to:

The amount of a water resource that can be made available for consumptive use in a particular water resource plan area under the rules of the water resource plan for that water resource plan area.

This definition applies to:

A possible water asset that arises from past events and whose existence will be confirmed only by the occurrence or non-occurrence of one or more uncertain future events not wholly within the control of the management of the water report entity.

This definition applies to:

A possible obligation that arises from past events and whose existence will be confirmed only by the occurrence or non-occurrence of one or more uncertain future events not wholly within the control of the management of the water report entity.

This definition applies to:

A skill score calculated in the original measurement space. Both the forecast and the observation are converted to cumulative density functions. In the case of the observation, this is a step function. The area between the two functions is the single CRPS value, which is averaged across all forecasts. Alt text

This definition applies to:

A set of low level catchments derived from the nine second digital elevation model (DEM) with a contracted node at the outflow point.

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related:

This definition applies to:

An entity within the Geofabric that represents a logical feature in the landscape such as the confluence of two major rivers or a significant monitoring location. A contracted node has a unique and persistent identifier.

This definition applies to:

Water required primarily to operate regulated rivers and utility supply networks to enable the delivery of water.

This definition applies to:

An international non-profit organisation that provides free licences and tools that copyright owners can use to allow others to share, reuse and remix their material, legally.

Source: Creative Commons Australia

This definition applies to:

continuous ranked probability score

A skill score calculated in the original measurement space. Both the forecast and the observation are converted to cumulative density functions. In the case of the observation, this is a step function. The area between the two functions is the single CRPS value, which is averaged across all forecasts. Alt text

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

This definition applies to:

Right that allows diversion of water for anyone who holds native title with respect to water, as determined under the Native Title Act 1993 (Commonwealth).

This definition applies to:

GEODATA 9 Second Flow Direction Grid derived from DEM-9S. A grid describing the principal directions of surface drainage across the whole of Australia.

Source: Geoscience Australia

Related:

This definition applies to:

A barrier to obstruct the flow of water, especially one of earth, masonry, etc., built across a stream.

This definition applies to:

The software and hardware used to manage the storage of and access to information held in a set of related files.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Regulation 1.03

This definition applies to:

An organisation responsible for managing the collection of environmental and water observations (data) and information about these measurements (metadata). The designated owner may differ from the data provider.

This definition applies to:

An organisation that provides data and metadata to the Bureau. The designated data provider may differ from the data owner.

This definition applies to:

Level of water held in a major storage, expressed in metres relative to specified datum and the time of the observation.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 4

This definition applies to:

Volume of water held in a major storage, expressed in megalitres and the time of the observation.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 4

This definition applies to:

The date for which the published aggregated volume was calculated.

Related FAQ

This definition applies to:

The date on which the published measurement was observed.

This definition applies to:

A period of 24 hours starting at 12:00 midnight.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Regulation 1.04

This definition applies to:

In a water storage, the volume of water stored below the level of the lowest outlet (the minimum supply level). This water cannot be accessed under normal operating conditions.

This definition applies to:

The portion of total storage capacity that is equal to the volume of water below the level of the lowest outlet (the minimum supply level). This water cannot be accessed under normal operating conditions. See the water storage diagram for more information.

Related: minimum supply level

This definition applies to:

Water in a storage that is below the elevation of the lowest constructed outlet.

This definition applies to:

One of a series of threshold values that divides a set of ordered data into 10 groups with an equal number of data points in each.

For example, consider a dataset of annual rainfall totals arranged in increasing order. The first decile is a value with 10% of the data below it and 90% above it. The eighth decile is a value with 80% of the data below it and 20% above it.

Related: quantile

This definition applies to:

Water service, or part of a water service, declared under chapter 2A, part 5A, division 2 of the Water Act 2000 (Queensland).

Source: Water Act 2000 (Qld) Schedule 4 – Dictionary

This definition applies to:

The volume of water that moves below vegetation root zones which may or may not enter the saturated zone and become recharge to the groundwater system.

Source: © Commonwealth of Australia 2005, National Water Commission, Australian Water Resources 2005, Glossary and definitions, Viewed 5 October 2011, http://www.water.gov.au/Glossary.aspx

Related: zone of saturation

This definition applies to:

Digital Elevation Model

Related: Geofabric

This definition applies to:

GEODATA 9 Second Digital Elevation Model. A grid of ground level elevation points covering the whole of Australia with a grid spacing of 9 seconds in longitude and latitude (approximately 250 metres) in the GDA94 coordinate system.

Related:

This definition applies to:

Volume of water sourced from desalination processes.

This definition applies to:

The process of removing salt from brackish or saline water.

This definition applies to:

A digital elevation model of the earth's surface.

Related:

This definition applies to:

The volume of surface water abstracted when no prior allocation or other claim on the surface water existed.

This definition applies to:

The volume of groundwater abstracted when no prior allocation or other claim on the groundwater existed.

This definition applies to:

Flow of groundwater from the saturated zone to streams, water storages, farm dams and natural surface water features. This is a form of groundwater-surface water interaction.

This definition applies to:

A hydrological model that takes into consideration the spatial variability of driving processes.

This definition applies to:

Synonymous with abstraction in case the water is removed from the surface water store.

Synonym: abstraction

This definition applies to:

Domestic purposes are defined in the dictionary of the Water Act 2000 (Qld) (Schedule 4). While not stated explicitly, domestic purposes includes water used in connection with a residential dwelling including human consumption, cooking, toilets and showers etc. Watering of gardens up to 0.25 ha in size is also considered to be domestic use provided the produce from the garden is not grown for sale, barter or exchange.

Source: Water Act 2000 (Qld) Schedule 4 – Dictionary

This definition applies to:

The downward movement of groundwater from a shallow aquifer to a deeper, underlying aquifer.

This definition applies to:

The total amount of terrestrial electromagnetic energy that falls on a specified unit horizontal surface.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

The long-wave irradiance emitted from the sky that falls on a specified unit horizontal surface.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

Data Product Specification based on ISO 19139

Related: ISO

This definition applies to:

Representation of the catchments of major surface water drainage systems, generally comprising a number of river basins. In Australia, 12 drainage divisions were first defined in the 1960s by the Australian Water Resources Council. Australian drainage division boundaries were revised by the Bureau in 2010 in line with the creation of the Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric (Geofabric) based on the 9 second Digital Elevation Model.

Related: Bureau

This definition applies to:

A long period of abnormally low rainfall, especially one that adversely affects agriculture and other human activities. See the Climate page on drought for more information.

This definition applies to:

The temperature of air measured by a thermometer freely exposed to the air but shielded from radiation and moisture.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

All non-irrigated crops including cereals, oil seeds, sugar and legumes.

This definition applies to:

All non-irrigated horticulture excluding intensive horticulture (e.g. glasshouses and shadehouses), which falls into the intensive use category. This category includes both perennial (e.g. tree fruits, tree nuts and vine fruits) and seasonal (e.g. fruits, nuts and herbs) horticulture.

This definition applies to:

All non-irrigated pastures including grazing modified pasture, exotic pasture, native pasture, woody fodder plants, pasture legumes and sown grasses.

This definition applies to:

electrical conductivity

This definition applies to:

A region where similar processes determine the interaction between groundwater and ecosystems, due to similar ecology, geology, climate, and groundwater/surface water connections.

Related: EHZ

This definition applies to:

Description of the water regimes needed to sustain the ecological values of water-dependent ecosystems at a low level of risk.

Source: adapted from definition for Environmental Water Requirements in ARMCANZ & ANZECC 1996, National principles for the provision of water for ecosystems, Sustainable Land and Water Resources Management Committee Subcommittee on Water Resources Occasional Paper SWR No 3 July 1996

Related: EWR

This definition applies to:

A dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit.

Source: Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

This definition applies to:

Exposure Draft of Australian Water Accounting Standard 1

This definition applies to:

eco-hydrogeological zone

Related: eco-hydrogeological zone

This definition applies to:

Refers to the extensive warming of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean that leads to a major shift in weather patterns across the Pacific. In Australia (particularly eastern Australia), El Niño events are associated with an increased probability of drier conditions. See the Weather and Climate page on El Niño for more information.

Related:

This definition applies to:

The oscillation between the El Niño climate phase and the La Niña climate phase, or opposite phase, usually over several years. See the Weather and Climate page on ENSO for more information.

Related:

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

In relation to water, means the capacity of the water to transmit a flow of electricity and is a common measure of the salinity of the water.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

Electrical conductivity (EC) measures dissolved salt in water. The standard EC unit is microSiemens per centimetre (µS/cm) at 25 °C.

Source: National Water Commission Water Dictionary

This definition applies to:

A format that is machine readable, but does not include scanned documents.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Regulation 1.03

This definition applies to:

A closed surface water drainage basin that retains water and has no outflow to the sea.

This definition applies to:

A collection or distribution of many forecasts for the same period and location. They can be generated from many models or from one model with many parameter sets.

This definition applies to:

El Niño Southern Oscillation

The oscillation between the El Niño climate phase and the La Niña climate phase, or opposite phase, usually over several years. See the Weather and Climate page on ENSO for more information.

This definition applies to:

A jurisdictional gazetted instrument (e.g. Water Sharing Plan), subordinate to the overarching State or Territory water rights legislation, intended to share the portion of the total water resource it covers.

This definition applies to:

Water Access Entitlements held for the benefit of the environment. They may include entitlements of a specific environmental class and non specific classes of entitlement.

Related: water access entitlements

This definition applies to:

Allocations announced on entitlements held for the environment.

This definition applies to:

The streamflow required to maintain appropriate environmental conditions in a waterway or water body.

This definition applies to:

Instruments in place to achieve the environmental water determination, e.g. environmental water storage release rules, water access rules to limit abstractions, rules on diversion to wetlands and annual environmental watering plans.

This definition applies to:

The environmental objectives or water regime that will be provided to meet the appropriate ecological values. The water regime is defined in terms of specific water level or flow criteria at key representative sites, which together form the Environmental Water Provisions (EWP).

This definition applies to:

Water level or water flow with its timing and location that has been determined or delivered for the benefit of the environment

This definition applies to:

The specific water level or flow criteria at key representative sites that the environmental water regime is set to achieve as part of the environmental water determination. They may meet in part or in full the environmenal water regimes requirements.

This definition applies to:

Water regime for the benefit of the environment.

This definition applies to:

The water regime needed to maintain ecological values of water dependent ecosystems at a low level of risk.

This definition applies to:

Water released from infrastructure, such as a surface water storage, for the benefit of the environment.

This definition applies to:

A software development company based in the United States that builds ArcGIS.

Related: ArcGIS

This definition applies to:

A format for storing GIS data within the ArcGIS software.

Related: GIS

This definition applies to:

evapotranspiration

The sum of evaporation and plant transpiration from the earth’s land surface to the atmosphere.

This definition applies to:

A process which occurs at a liquid surface resulting in a change of state from liquid to vapour. In relation to water resource assessment and water accounting, evaporation refers to the movement of water from the land surface (predominantly liquid) to the atmosphere (water vapour). The liquid water at the land surface that may be available for evaporation includes surface water, soil water, water within vegetation and water on vegetation and paved surfaces.

Related:

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

The sum of evaporation and plant transpiration from the earth’s land surface to the atmosphere.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

The combined loss of water from a given area during a specified period of time by evaporation from the soil or water surface and by transpiration from plants.

Source: Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality (2000)

Synonym: evapotranspiration

This definition applies to:

Environmental Water Provisions

This definition applies to:

ecological water requirement

Related: ecological water requirement

This definition applies to:

The forecast probability that a particular streamflow value will be exceeded.

For example there is a 60% forecast probability that a total streamflow volume of 25 gigalitres for Acheron River at Taggerty will be exceeded in the forecast period October–December 2009.

This definition applies to:

The measure of the energy received per unit area.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

A transaction to transfer a water right from one legal entity to another out of a specified area. The area can be a water system, water management area or a trading zone as defined in respective State and Territory legislation.

This definition applies to:

Synonymous with abstraction in case the water is removed from the groundwater store.

Synonym: abstraction

This definition applies to:

Small water storage usually managed by the landowner with a capacity usually less than 100 ML. The volume includes dead storage.

This definition applies to:

A part of the physical environment with properties that can be observed; these include natural features such as rivers, aquifers and the atmosphere, and human defined or constructed features such as channels, irrigation districts and urban supply areas.

This definition applies to:

Feature classes are homogeneous collections of common features, each having the same spatial representation, such as points, lines, or polygons, and a common set of attribute columns, for example, a line feature class for representing road centrelines. The four most commonly used feature classes in the geodatabase are points, lines, polygons, and annotation (the geodatabase name for map text).

Source: ArcGIS 9.2 Desktop Help

This definition applies to:

A period used for reporting of annual financial statements in Government and other organisations. In Australia this usually refers to the 12 months starting 1 July and ending on 30 June.

This definition applies to:

The first quartile of a set of numbers is the value in which 25% of the numbers are below it and 75% of the numbers are above it when the numbers are arranged in ascending (increasing) order.

Synonym: 25% quartile

This definition applies to:

Flooding occurring within about six hours of rain, usually the result of intense local rain and characterised by rapid rises in water-levels.

This definition applies to:

An advice of the potential occurrence of flooding inferred from forecast meteorological considerations and an assessment of catchment wetness. The issuing of a flood watch is meant to indicate that vigilance to potential flooding is required of the community.

Related:

Synonym: flood watch

This definition applies to:

An advice of the potential occurrence of flooding inferred from forecast meteorological considerations and an assessment of catchment wetness. The issuing of a flood watch is meant to indicate that vigilance to potential flooding is required of the community.

Synonym: flood threat advice

This definition applies to:

Flat or nearly flat land adjacent to a stream or river that experiences occasional or periodic flooding.

Related: alluvial plain

This definition applies to:

The flow of water in streams, rivers and other channels.

Synonym: streamflow

This definition applies to:

Land dominated by trees and other woody vegetation. It includes closed forest, open forest and woodland.

This definition applies to:

Input data such as AusHydro, ANUDEM streams and the National Catchment Boundaries used to build the Geofabric.

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related:

This definition applies to:

Hard impermeable rock containing fractures and fissures that are able to store and transmit water.

This definition applies to:

Full Supply Level

This definition applies to:

The normal maximum operating water level of a water storage when not affected by floods. This water level corresponds to 100% capacity. See the water storage diagram for more information.

Related: capacity

This definition applies to:

An expected future demand on water influenced by the availability and management of the region’s water resources. It may arise as a result of an externally imposed requirement or best practice for managing water resources.

This definition applies to:

An expected future demand for water influenced by the availability and management of the water assets and water liabilities of the water report entity. It may arise as a result of an externally imposed requirement or best practices for managing water resources.

This definition applies to:

Geoscience Australia

This definition applies to:

Great Artesian Basin

This definition applies to:

A stream where groundwater discharge contributes to streamflow.

Source: Richardson, S., et al., (2011). Australian groundwater-dependent ecosystem toolbox part 1: assessment framework, Waterlines report, National Water Commission, Canberra

Synonym: discharge from groundwater to surface water

This definition applies to:

groundwater dependent ecosystem

This definition applies to:

Describes ecosystems in terms of their 'potential to be interacting with groundwater'. The classes mapped in the GDE Atlas are:

The term 'potential' is used to reflect the uncertainty inherent in identifying ecosystems as groundwater-dependant using remote analysis methods. Finer scale studies or fieldwork are needed to confirm this analysis.

This definition applies to:

Describes GDEs within the Atlas that were identified through desktop analysis in previous studies.

Since the result for these GDEs was not derived during the GDE Atlas analysis, no GDE potential result could be applied to these ecosystems. This also means no ‘Lines of Evidence’ attribute is necessary. However, it is considered that the identification of these ecosystems as GDEs is relatively reliable, since previous studies have usually focussed on smaller areas than the Atlas, and have been able to analyse the potential interaction between ecosystems and groundwater in more detail.

This definition applies to:

Describes GDEs within the Atlas that were identified through fieldwork.

These GDEs do not have ‘GDE potential’ or ‘Lines of Evidence’ attributes because they were identified through fieldwork (rather than using the GDE Atlas methodology). The identification of these ecosystems as GDEs is considered to be very reliable.

This definition applies to:

A water accounting report intended to meet the information needs common to users who are unable to command the preparation of water accounting reports tailored to satisfy their information needs. A general purpose water accounting report is prepared in accordance with Australian Water Accounting Standards and comprises a Contextual Statement, an Accountability Statement, water accounting statements, accompanying note disclosures and an Assurance Statement.

This definition applies to:

Appropriate for estimating probable maximum precipitation for durations up to six hours and for an area of less than 1000 square kilometres.

Related: probable maximum precipitation (PMP)

This definition applies to:

Appropriate for estimating probable maximum precipitation in regions of Australia where tropical storms are not the source of the greatest rainfall depths and where topographic influences vary markedly.

Related: probable maximum precipitation (PMP)

This definition applies to:

Appropriate for estimating probable maximum precipitation in regions of Australia affected by tropical storms.

Related: probable maximum precipitation (PMP)

This definition applies to:

A national set of topographic products developed by Geoscience Australia at various scales.

This definition applies to:

The common abbreviation for the Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric.

Related:

This definition applies to:

A first pass national groundwater GIS dataset. Groundwater boundaries are derived from interim groundwater data.

Related:

This definition applies to:

A contracted catchments hierarchy resulting from contracted nodes of important hydrological features. A simplified Node-Link network identifies contracted nodes in Geofabric Surface Network and the corresponding linkages between these nodes.

Related:

This definition applies to:

A collection of GIS feature classes derived from aggregations of contracted catchments in the Geofabric Hydrology Reporting Catchments product. Data is aggregated to drainage divisions and river region reporting units.

Related:

This definition applies to:

A collection of GIS feature classes of surface water features of Australia (excluding external Territories). It is flow directed and provides input for the production of maps and visualisations that present the results of hydrological analyses.

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related:

This definition applies to:

A collection of GIS feature classes providing topographic based surface catchment boundaries, organised into a hierarchy using the Pfafstetter reference system. It has a hydrological relationship to surface water features and can be used for surface hydrological analysis.

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related:

This definition applies to:

A collection of GIS feature classes based upon the DEM derived ANUDEM Streams. It is a generalised representation of Geofabric Surface Cartography streams with the addition of full topological connection. It can be used for selecting hydrological observation points (if they exist) and for geoprocessing and hydrological modelling that involves streamflow tracing operations.

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related:

This definition applies to:

The first major release of Geofabric data in 2010 derived from foundation input data at scale 1:250 000. Three products were included: Geofabric Surface Cartography, Geofabric Surface Catchments, Geofabric Surface Network.

Related:

This definition applies to:

The second major release of Geofabric data in 2011 derived from foundation input data at scale 1:250 000. Six products were included: Geofabric Surface Cartography, Geofabric Surface Catchments, Geofabric Surface Network, Geofabric Hydrology Reporting Catchments, Geofabric Hydrology Rerpoting Regions, Geofabric Groundwater Cartography.

Related:

This definition applies to:

A system used for the design, capture, storage, management and analysis of geographic data. Often referred to as GIS.

Related: GIS

This definition applies to:

Australia's national geoscience agency.

Related:

This definition applies to:

groundwater flow system

This definition applies to:

1,000 megalitres, which also is 1,000,000,000 litres.

This definition applies to:

Geographic Information System

This definition applies to:

gigalitre

1,000 megalitres, which also is 1,000,000,000 litres.

Related: gigalitre (GL)

This definition applies to:

The total amount of electromagnetic energy emitted from the sun that falls on a specified unit horizontal surface.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

The irradiance emitted from the sun that falls on a specified unit horizontal surface.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

groundwater management unit

An area delineated for the management of groundwater based on similar resource characteristics (for example rock type and water table depth) and management rules that may be applied.

This definition applies to:

General Purpose Water Accounting Report

This definition applies to:

The transfer price of water as agreed between legal entities inclusive of all applicable transaction costs.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

Subsurface water in soils and geological formations that are fully saturated.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

(a) water occurring naturally below ground level (whether in an aquifer or otherwise) or (b) water occurring at a place below ground that has been pumped, diverted or released to that place for the purpose of being stored there. It does not include water held in underground tanks, pipes or other works.

In GDE Atlas, this definition includes the capillary fringe, which is an important source of water for many GDEs.

Source: Water Act 2007 Part 1 Section 4

Equivalent: water market equivalent terms

This definition applies to:

Water access entitlement granted on the groundwater resource.

This definition applies to:

Volume of water resulting from an allocation announcement made on a groundwater access entitlement.

This definition applies to:

A transaction to transfer a groundwater allocation from one legal entity to another, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

The water assets that relate to groundwater, excluding soil moisture and water held in works underground.

In the National Water Account, it is quantified as the total of managed groundwater volumes of each groundwater management unit significant to the water balance within the region. For example where available this managed volume corresponds to the permissible consumptive volume specified in the water management plan.

This definition applies to:

Natural ecosystems that require access to groundwater to meet all or some of their water requirements on a permanent or intermittent basis, so as to maintain their communities of plants and animals, ecosystem processes and ecosystem services.

Source: Richardson, S., et al., (2011). Australian groundwater-dependent ecosystem toolbox part 1: assessment framework, Waterlines report, National Water Commission, Canberra

This definition applies to:

A transaction to transfer for a specified term a groundwater access entitlement from one legal entity to another, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

A transaction to transfer perpetually a groundwater access entitlement from one legal entity to another, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

Water that flows in aquifers and aquitards.

This definition applies to:

The system which represents the movement of subsurface water from the point where it enters the ground to where it leaves.

Source: Richardson, S., et al., (2011). Australian groundwater-dependent ecosystem toolbox part 1: assessment framework, Waterlines report, National Water Commission, Canberra

Related: groundwater flow

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

Increases in the groundwater assets of a water reporting entity.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

Volume of physical inflows to groundwater during the reporting period; from outside the region or from other stores.

This definition applies to:

The level of groundwater in an aquifer typically measured in a groundwater bore. In the case of an unconfined aquifer the groundwater level is equal to the water table level.

This definition applies to:

A water liability relating to groundwater.

This definition applies to:

An increase in groundwater liability as a result of allocation announcements, etc.

This definition applies to:

An area delineated for the management of groundwater based on similar resource characteristics (for example rock type and water table depth) and management rules that may be applied.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

Decreases in the groundwater assets of a water reporting entity.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

Volume of physical outflows from groundwater during the reporting period; to outside the region or to other stores.

This definition applies to:

The infiltration or ingress of water to the saturated part of a geological layer. Infiltration of precipitation and its movement to the water table is a form of natural recharge. Other forms arise from flooding and irrigation. Artificial recharge can also occur through various means including bore injection.

This definition applies to:

The maximum volume of groundwater that can be extracted without causing any long-term mining of the aquifer system. It does not represent a ‘sustainable’ or ‘safe’ yield that normally takes into account factors such as intrusion of poor quality water and surface water groundwater interaction. In an unconfined aquifer the groundwater resource potential is mainly based on estimation of groundwater recharge, while in a confined aquifer the groundwater resource potential represents the available elastic storage (or a fraction of throughflow).

This definition applies to:

Water rights granted by a jurisdiction to access the region's groundwater.

This definition applies to:

Water assets that relate to groundwater but excluding soil moisture and water held in works underground.

Related: water asset

This definition applies to:

The water accounting report of a group water report entity presented as a single water entity.

This definition applies to:

A water report entity comprising individual water entities and for which a group water accounting report is required to be prepared under a regulation, statute or directive.

This definition applies to:

generalised southeast Australia method

Appropriate for estimating probable maximum precipitation in regions of Australia where tropical storms are not the source of the greatest rainfall depths and where topographic influences vary markedly.

generalised short-duration method

Appropriate for estimating probable maximum precipitation for durations up to six hours and for an area of less than 1000 square kilometres.

groundwater treatment plant

This definition applies to:

revised generalised tropical storm method

Appropriate for estimating probable maximum precipitation in regions of Australia affected by tropical storms.

The abbreviation for hectare; one hectare is equal to an area of 10 000 square metres.

Synonym: hectare

This definition applies to:

Synonymous with abstraction in case the water is removed from the landscape water store.

Synonym: abstraction

This definition applies to:

one hectare is equal to an area of 10 000 square metres.

Synonym: ha

This definition applies to:

GDE Atlas terminology used to classify ecosystems as likely to be interacting with groundwater. It indicates that groundwater is likely to be present, and the ecosystem is likely to be using it. This categorisation means that the majority of data analysed indicated a high potential for groundwater interaction, or that the most reliable (and most heavily weighted) datasets indicated high potential.

This definition applies to:

A retrospective forecast using observed information to validate or test a mathematical model. Known inputs for past events are entered into the model to see how well the output matches the known results.

This definition applies to:

A probability distribution created by sampling the historical streamflow data record. It is the baseline reference used in determination of skill scores from hindcasting.

This definition applies to:

The more recent of the two epochs of the Quaternary Period, beginning at the end of the last major Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago. It is characterised by the development of human civilisations.

This definition applies to:

A period of 60 minutes starting on the hour (e.g. 12:00).

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Regulation 1.04

This definition applies to:

A property of soil or rock, which describes the ease with which water can move through pore spaces or fractures. It depends on the intrinsic permeability of the material and on the degree of saturation. Saturated hydraulic conductivity describes water movement through saturated media.

This definition applies to:

Calculated as the difference between two hydraulic head measurements divided by the distance between the two measurements. Hydraulic gradient is used in the calculation of water flow.

This definition applies to:

A topic in applied science and engineering dealing with the mechanical properties of liquids.

This definition applies to:

Developed at the United States Geological Survey (USGS), HYDRO1k is a geographic database providing comprehensive and consistent global coverage of topographically derived datasets.

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

This definition applies to:

The branch of geology that deals with the occurrence, distribution, movement and effect of groundwater.

This definition applies to:

A graph showing the surface level, discharge, velocity, or some other feature of water, with respect to time. For example, a graph illustrating the discharge of a stream against time is called a discharge hydrograph.

This definition applies to:

An internal identifier assigned when using the ArcHydro tools to implement the ArcHydro data model.

This definition applies to:

The branch of science especially concerned with the movement and quality of water in relation to land.

This definition applies to:

The monitoring of the components of the hydrological cycle including rainfall, groundwater characteristics, as well as water quality and flow characteristics of surface waters.

Source: Wikipedia, Viewed 5 October 2011, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrometry

This definition applies to:

Interim Aquifer Framework

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related:

This definition applies to:

International Accounting Standards Board

This definition applies to:

inflow dependence

This definition applies to:

Inflow Dependent Ecosystem

This definition applies to:

intensity-frequency-duration

This definition applies to:

Interim Groundwater Data.

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related:

This definition applies to:

A platform specific model that references the conceptual model. In the case of the Geofabric the implementation is in ArcGIS.

This definition applies to:

A major contributor to rainfall variability over Australia. When the dipole is in a positive phase, the sea-surface temperature (SST) around Indonesia is cooler than average while those in the western Indian Ocean are warmer than average. The positive phase increases easterly winds across the Indian Ocean, while convection in areas near Australia reduces. This results in suppressed rainfall over the Australian region. During a negative phase, warmer than average SST near Indonesia and cooler than average SST in the western Indian Ocean, result in more westerly winds across the Indian Ocean, greater convection near Australia and enhanced rainfall in the Australian region. See the Weather and Climate page on Indian Ocean for more information.

This definition applies to:

The total amount of metered and estimated non-metered, potable and non-potable, water supplied to industrial properties.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

The process by which water on the ground surface enters the soil.

This definition applies to:

Describes a landscape within the GDE Atlas that is wetter than surrounding areas either seasonally or permanently, because it receives water from inflows in addition to rainfall. IDs include groundwater dependent ecosystems as well as ecosystems which use sources of water other than rainfall (e.g. surface water, soil water, irrigation).

The layer that shows IDs is derived from the remote sensing layer, in which only pixels that have inflow dependence likelihoods of between 6 and 10 are included. The pixels are a combination of MODIS and Landsat data and are at a resolution of 25m2.

This definition applies to:

Describes the likelihood that a landscape is accessing a source of water in addition to rainfall (that it is inflow dependent). It is expressed in the ID layer as a value between 6 (low) and 10 (high), where 10 indicates a landscape that is most likely to be accessing additional water sources. A likelihood value of 6 indicates a landscape that is marginally more likely to be accessing an additional source of water than relying solely on rainfall. A value of less than 6 represents a landscape that is more likely to rely solely on rainfall and is therefore not considered inflow dependent.

This definition applies to:

Describes ecosystems that are likely to be using another source of water in addition to rainfall. IDEs include groundwater dependent ecosystems as well as ecosystems which use sources of water other than rainfall (e.g. surface water, soil water, irrigation).

IDEs are effectively the ID pixels assigned onto a previously mapped ecosystem polygon. The pixel ID likelihood value was assigned to each ecosystem polygon using a majority rules approach. This means that the ID likelihood value which occurred most often within the ecosystem polygon, was the likelihood value assigned to the polygon overall.

This definition applies to:

The movement of seawater into a coastal aquifer often as a result of groundwater extraction. Also known as seawater intrusion.

This definition applies to:

The rivers and streams that flow into a water storage. If a water storage is not located on a watercourse it is referred to as being off stream.

This definition applies to:

The bulk transfer of water from one river basin into another.

Related: transfer

This definition applies to:

Beds (layers) of rock lying between or alternating with beds of a different kind of rock.

This definition applies to:

A transaction to transfer a water right from one legal entity to another between different States or Territories.

This definition applies to:

A two tiered system of geological units aggregated to aquifers (and sometimes aquitards) of similar hydrogeological characteristics. When available, it will be replaced by the National Groundwater Information System.

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related:

This definition applies to:

Digital groundwater boundaries obtained from the best available digital groundwater data sourced from both Commonwealth and State and Territory jurisdictions as part of the IGWD project. When available, it will be replaced by the National Groundwater Information System.

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related:

This definition applies to:

A transaction to transfer a water right from one legal entity to another within a specified area. The area can be a trading zone, irrigation district or water resource plan area as defined in respective State and Territory legislation.

This definition applies to:

A measure of statistical dispersion, being equal to the difference between the third and first quartiles. Also called the midspread or middle 50.

This definition applies to:

A transaction to transfer a water right from one legal entity to another within the same State or Territory.

This definition applies to:

Indian Ocean Dipole

A major contributor to rainfall variability over Australia. When the dipole is in a positive phase, the sea-surface temperature (SST) around Indonesia is cooler than average while those in the western Indian Ocean are warmer than average. The positive phase increases easterly winds across the Indian Ocean, while convection in areas near Australia reduces. This results in suppressed rainfall over the Australian region. During a negative phase, warmer than average SST near Indonesia and cooler than average SST in the western Indian Ocean, result in more westerly winds across the Indian Ocean, greater convection near Australia and enhanced rainfall in the Australian region. See the Weather and Climate page on Indian Ocean for more information.

This definition applies to:

The measure of the rate of electromagnetic energy received per unit area.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

Crops including cereals, oil seeds, sugar, cotton and legumes supplied with water artificially.

This definition applies to:

Fruits, vegetables, flowers, or ornamental plants supplied with water artificially.

This definition applies to:

Pastures supplied with water artificially, including modified pasture, exotic pasture, native pasture, woody fodder plants, pasture legumes and sown grasses.

This definition applies to:

The irrigation distribution system is constituted by the irrigation delivery system only, which receives water that has been abstracted from the different water sources in the region or that has been transferred from outside the region, before delivery to the irrigation paddocks.

This definition applies to:

An entity that operates water service infrastructure for the purposes of delivering water for the primary purpose of it being used for irrigation.

Source: Adapted from the Water Act 2007 Part 1 Section 7

This definition applies to:

The portion of irrigation water that, after delivery, is not consumed and is returned into the surface water or groundwater system.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

A right that: (a) a person has against an irrigation infrastructure operator to receive water and (b) is not a water access right or a water delivery right.

Source: Water Act 2007 Part 1 Section 4

This definition applies to:

Context 2

A right issued by an irrigation entity and granted from the entity’s bulk water access entitlement.

Source: Water Act 2007 Part 1 Section 4

This definition applies to:

Infrastructure managed by an irrigation entity to service individual irrigators.

This definition applies to:

Outflows from the region's irrigation system due to natural processes or delivery of water and decrease of claims to water held on behalf of the region's irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

Inflows into the region's irrigation scheme or increase of claims to water that may result in inflows into the region's irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

Water liability relating to the irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

Decreases in the region's irrigation scheme liability. It includes adjustment or forfeiture of the obligation to deliver water from the irrigation scheme. It excludes actual delivery of water.

This definition applies to:

Increases in the region's irrigation scheme water liability. It includes all recognised commitments to deliver water from the region's irrigation scheme.

This definition applies to:

International Recommendations for Water Statistics

This definition applies to:

International Organization for Standardization

This definition applies to:

Terrain characterised by sinkholes, caves and springs, developed most commonly in carbonate rocks, where significant dissolution of the rock has occurred due to flowing water.

Source: Jennings 1985; Culver et al. 1995; Fetter 2001 as referenced in M Tomlinson and A Boulton 2008, Subsurface groundwater dependent ecosystems: a review of biodiversity, ecological processes and ecosystem services, National Water Commission Waterlines Occasional Paper No. 8, October 2008

This definition applies to:

The extensive cooling of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. In Australia (particularly eastern Australia), La Niña events are associated with an increased probability of wetter conditions. See the Weather and Climate page on La Niña for more information.

Related:

This definition applies to:

A physical feature that is the solid ground of the Earth.

This definition applies to:

Landsat Thematic Mapper 5 – a medium resolution satellite image sensor obtained twice monthly over Australia. Data can be obtained from United States Geological Survey.

Source: Engel, J., and Weinstein, O., (1983). The Thematic Mapper – an overview, IEEE Transactions On Geoscience and Remote Sensing, GE-21:258-265

This definition applies to:

All water in the natural environment that is not surface water or groundwater. Includes water in the unsaturated zone of the soil, on the flood plain or in water bodies that are disconnected from the rivers, such as natural lakes, ponds or wetlands.

This definition applies to:

Inflows to the region's landscape water.

This definition applies to:

A combination of surface runoff and groundwater recharge.

This definition applies to:

An obligation that derives from: (a) a contract, (b) legislation, or (c) other operation of law.

This definition applies to:

The volume of water extracted from regulated groundwater assets pursuant to the rules of the groundwater allocation licence.

This definition applies to:

A piece of water information having a generic name and definition. In a given region, it consists of a volumetric value, expressed in megalitres (ML), and notes providing supporting information. The supporting information may include what the value represents, how it was quantified and how it compares to the previous year. In the National Water Account, line items may be reported in the water accounting statements and in the region notes.

This definition applies to:

A note that is specific to a line item that appears in the water accounting statements or the region notes of the National Water Account.

This definition applies to:

GDE Atlas terminology identifying the number of rules that could be applied to a polygon given the GIS data available for the analysis. The ‘Lines of Evidence’ result shows how much data the GDE potential result was based on, and therefore is a pragmatic indicator of the reliability of the GDE potential result. This is an attribute for each derived GDE polygon.

This definition applies to:

Describes situations where intense rainfall is expected to cause high run-off volumes in small catchments or localised areas with minimal impact on main streams.

This definition applies to:

A stream from which water is lost to the surrounding and underlying substrate via infiltration through the streambed and banks.

Source: Richardson, S., et al., (2011). Australian groundwater-dependent ecosystem toolbox part 1: assessment framework, Waterlines report, National Water Commission, Canberra

This definition applies to:

GDE Atlas terminology used to classify ecosystems as unlikely to be interacting with groundwater. It indicates that groundwater is unlikely to be present, or if it is present, the ecosystem is unlikely to use it. This categorisation means that all datasets suggest groundwater interaction is unlikely, or that the most reliable (and most heavily weighted) datasets suggest that groundwater interaction is unlikely.

This definition applies to:

The abbreviation for metre(s).

This definition applies to:

The abbreviation for elevation in metres with respect to the Australian Height Datum.

Related: Australian height datum (AHD)

This definition applies to:

In addition to the criteria for moderate flooding, extensive rural areas and/or urban areas are inundated. Properties and towns are likely to be isolated and major traffic routes likely to be closed. Evacuation of people from flood affected areas may be required.

Related:

This definition applies to:

Any water storage that has a total storage capacity of 1000 million litres or more.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

The volume of water deliberately moved to groundwater assets from other water assets (such as surface water) due to human intervention.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

The deliberate adding of water to an aquifer.

This definition applies to:

An average annual groundwater volume available for extraction usually estimated by jurisdictions for each managed groundwater management unit. This volume has different names in different jurisdictions, for example permissible consumptive volume, volume available for extraction, groundwater availability and these volumes are usually presented and explained in documents such as Water Sharing Plans and Water Resource Plans. The intent is usually to manage the total of all groundwater allocations so that allocations do not exceed the managed groundwater volume. Furthermore this volume may be adjusted annually to reflect the status of the groundwater resource (and allocations would be adjusted accordingly).

This definition applies to:

Information is material if its omission or misstatement could influence the water-related decisions made from using the general purpose water accounting report. Materiality depends on the impact of the nature and amount (volume, value or other attribute) of the item or error. It is influenced by the circumstances in which the information is presented and how it affects the decision-making process.

This definition applies to:

Murray–Darling Basin

This definition applies to:

Expresses the estimated mean seasonal range in the amount of water stored in all water stores (surface, soil and groundwater). A large range is likely to indicate a large use of water from storage during periods with low rainfall, for example through root water uptake from deeper soil or groundwater stores.

Source: Van Dijk, A., Warren, G., Van Niel, T., Byrne, G., Pollock. D., Doody, T., (2011). Derivation of data layers from medium resolution remote sensing to support mapping of groundwater dependent ecosystems. CSIRO Land and Water, Internal Document for National Water Commission GDE Atlas.

Related: MSSR

This definition applies to:

One million litres.

This definition applies to:

Those physical features that relate to atmospheric phenomena, especially weather and weather conditions. For example, the land surface or the atmosphere.

Related:

This definition applies to:

The lowest water level to which a water storage can be drawn down (0% full) with existing outlet infrastructure; typically equal to the level of the lowest outlet, the lower limit of accessible storage capacity. See the water storage diagram for more information.

Related: accessible storage capacity

This definition applies to:

Causes inconvenience. Low-lying areas next to watercourses are inundated which may require the removal of stock and equipment. Minor roads may be closed and low-level bridges submerged.

Related:

This definition applies to:

Any water storage in which water is stored for taking and that meets the following criteria: (a) it is not a major storage; (b) it has a storage capacity of 100 million litres or more; (c) it is not used primarily for the precipitation of ash; (d) it is not a mine tailings dam; (e) it is not managed by an urban infrastructure operator primarily for the purposes of flood management or pollution abatement.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

The abbreviation for megalitre. One megalitre is equal to one million litres.

This definition applies to:

In addition to the criteria for minor flooding, the evacuation of some houses may be required. Main traffic routes may be covered. The area of inundation is substantial in rural areas requiring the removal of stock.

Related:

This definition applies to:

GDE Atlas terminology used to classify ecosystems that may interact with groundwater. It indicates that groundwater is possibly present, and the ecosystem may use it. Where data is conflicting (some data suggests that groundwater interaction is occurring, while other data suggests it is not), and it is weighted equally (both datasets are considered equally good indicators of groundwater interaction), this will be the resulting categorisation.

This definition applies to:

MODerate resolution Imaging Spectrometer – a sensor mounted on NASA’s TERRA and AQUA satellites that orbits the Earth collecting data in visible and infrared wavelengths. The data used in this project was the MOD43B4 Nadir BRDF (NBAR) product disseminated by NASA and post-processed by CSIRO.

Source: Paget, M.J. and King, E.A., (2008). MODIS Land data sets for the Australian region. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research internal report 004, CSIRO Canberra, Australia, ISBN 978192142432(pdf).

This definition applies to:

A place where environmental observations are conducted; typically a physical location where sensors are used to measure the properties of one or more features.

Related: feature

This definition applies to:

A systematic collection of information about a set of monitoring sites.

Related: monitoring site

This definition applies to:

The northern Australian monsoon season generally lasts from December to March. It is associated with the inflow of moist west to northwesterly winds into the monsoon trough, producing convective cloud and heavy rainfall over northern Australia. These moisture-laden winds originate from the Indian Ocean and southern Asian waters. The northern Australian wet season encompasses the monsoon months but can extend several months either side. See the Weather and Climate page on the Australian monsoon for more information.

This definition applies to:

One of the 12 months of the calendar year (e.g. January).

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Regulation 1.04

This definition applies to:

Minimum Supply Level

This definition applies to:

mean seasonal storage range

Related: mean seasonal storage range

This definition applies to:

The total amount of metered and estimated non-metered, potable and non-potable water supplied for municipal purposes.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

Foundation input data derived from DEM-9S for Geofabric Surface Catchments, in which a catchment has been defined for every stream segment contained within the Geofabric Surface Network product. It also includes Levels 1 (drainage divisions) and 2 (aggregated river basin groups) and NCB Pfafstetter coding.

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related:

This definition applies to:

The Intergovernmental Agreement on a National Water Initiative between the Commonwealth of Australia and the Governments of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory (as amended from time to time).

Source: Water Act 2007 Part 1 Section 4

This definition applies to:

National Catchment Boundaries

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related:

This definition applies to:

A bore with more than one pipe or a group of nearby bores, open at different levels in aquifers/aquitards, used to evaluate the vertical variation in groundwater pressure head or chemistry.

This definition applies to:

The net global solar exposure plus the net long-wave exposure.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

The global solar exposure less the reflected global solar exposure.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

The global solar irradiance less the reflected global solar irradiance.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

The net global solar irradiance plus the net long-wave irradiance.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

The downward long-wave exposure less the upward long-wave exposure.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

The downward long-wave irradiance less the upward long-wave exposure.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

Equals total water assets less total water liabilities

This definition applies to:

Context 2

The excess of the water assets of the water report entity after deducting all of its water liabilities.

This definition applies to:

The transfer price of water as agreed between legal entities exclusive of all applicable transaction costs.

This definition applies to:

National Hydrography Dataset Plus. A geospatial hydrological system implemented in the United States.

This definition applies to:

An event that occurs between the end of the reporting period and the date when the Accountability Statement is signed that relates to conditions that arose after the end of the reporting period.

This definition applies to:

Increases in non physical water asset due to allocation announcements or recognition of other claims to water.

This definition applies to:

Decrease in non physical water asset due to adjustment and forfeiture.

This definition applies to:

Water not intended for use as drinking water.

This definition applies to:

Groundwater with salinity (expressed as Total Dissolved Solids) usually less than 3,000 milligrams per litre.

This definition applies to:

Surface water abstracted under a water access entitlement that does not settle an allocation or other claim on the surface water.

This definition applies to:

Groundwater abstracted under a water access entitlement that does not settle an allocation or other claim on the groundwater.

This definition applies to:

natural resource management

This definition applies to:

New South Wales

This definition applies to:

National Water Commission

This definition applies to:

National Water Initiative

This definition applies to:

An event that creates a legal or constructive obligation that results in the management of a water report entity having no realistic alternative to settling that obligation.

This definition applies to:

The depth of water (in metres) at a river height measuring gauge located along the river. In most cases a zero reading is the lowest water-level that is reached during dry conditions. In many tidal areas, as well as a few inland areas, river levels are expressed in metres above mean sea level or Australian height datum.

Related: peak river height

This definition applies to:

off-channel water comprises water in: (i) storages, such as farm dams, not connected to rivers and filled from runoff harvesting, surface water diversion or groundwater extraction (ii) rainwater tanks. off-channel water is owned by the individual or entity that abstracted the water and not available for water sharing.

This definition applies to:

Outflows from the region's off-channel water.

This definition applies to:

Inflows to the region's off-channel water.

This definition applies to:

Towns not connected to the SEQ Water Grid are considered off-grid.

This definition applies to:

Towns and water treatment plants connected to the SEQ Water Grid are considered on-grid.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

The total water storage in water assets in the region at the beginning of the reporting period.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

The total water storage for a water report entity at the beginning of the reporting period.

This definition applies to:

Water rights granted by a jurisdiction, external to an entitlement system.

This definition applies to:

Water rights granted by a jurisdiction other than those giving access exclusively to surface water or groundwater.

This definition applies to:

Australian Online Coastal Information.

Source: Ozcoasts

Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related: Geoscience Australia

This definition applies to:

A deposit of unconsolidated sediments or semi-consolidated sedimentary rocks deposited in ancient inactive river channel systems.

This definition applies to:

A valley formed by ancient rivers that are no longer active. Alluvial deposits can often be found here buried by other sediments.

This definition applies to:

A measurable characteristic of a physical entity (feature); for example the temperature of water in a river.

Related: feature

This definition applies to:

The highest river height (in metres) observed during a flood event at the specified site on the river.

Related: observed river height

This definition applies to:

The volume of water in storage as a percentage of the accessible storage capacity. Note that the percentage full may exceed 100% due to floods for example.

Related: accessible storage capacity

Synonym: % full

This definition applies to:

One of a series of threshold values that divides a set of ordered data into 100 groups with an equal number of data points in each.

For example, consider a dataset of annual rainfall totals arranged in increasing order. The 20th percentile is a value with 20% of the data below it and 80% above it. The 90th percentile is a value with 90% of the data below it and 10% above it.

Related: quantile

This definition applies to:

A region in the unsaturated zone where the soil or rock may be locally saturated because it overlies a low-permeability unit.

Source: National Water Commission Water Dictionary

This definition applies to:

The Pfafstetter coding system developed by Otto Pfafstetter in 1989, is a methodology for assigning catchment identifers based on the topology of the land surface.

Source: ESRI

Related: Geofabric Surface Catchments

This definition applies to:

Value that represents the acidity or alkalinity of an aqueous solution. It is defined as the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration of the solution.

Source: Australian and New Zealand Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Water Quality (2000)

This definition applies to:

This definition applies to:

A circular chart that is divided into sectors. A pie chart is used to display tercile forecasts with three sectors representing low flow, near median flow and high flow.

Related FAQ

This definition applies to:

An epoch which is part of the geologic timescale, usually dated as 1.8-1.6 million to 10,000 years before the present. It covers most of the latest period of repeated glaciations.

This definition applies to:

An epoch that lasted from 5.3 million to 2.6 million years ago. It follows the Miocene epoch and is followed by the pleistocene epoch. It represents a period of general cooling and drying.

This definition applies to:

probable maximum flood

Related: probable maximum precipitation (PMP)

This definition applies to:

probable maximum precipitation

The greatest depth of precipitation for a given duration meteorologically possible for a given size storm area at a particular location at a particular time of the year, with no allowance made for long-term climatic trends.

Related: PMF

The Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management’s point source database is an Oracle database that collects electronic data for licensed discharges from environmentally relevant activities, such as wastewater treatment plants, and industrial and commercial discharges.

This definition applies to:

Water that is intended for use as drinking water and should materially meet the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines 2004, or equivalent.

This definition applies to:

A surface representing the hydraulic head of groundwater; represented by the water table altitude in an unconfined aquifer or by the altitude to which water will rise in a properly constructed well in a confined aquifer.

Source: USGS Definition of Terms

This definition applies to:

All forms in which water falls on the land surface and open water bodies as rain, sleet, snow, hail, or drizzle.

This definition applies to:

The height (in metres) to which the river is predicted to rise at the river gauge referred to in the warning. The actual depth of floodwater will vary across the floodplain. Knowledge of past flood events, as well as estimates of flood levels from flood studies, are used by local Councils, emergency services and landowners to determine which areas are likely to be flooded from the predicted river height. The accuracy of this prediction will depend on a number of factors, including the type of flood forecasting model and its input data. Predicted river heights are subject to forecasting error and are regularly updated as more information becomes available.

This definition applies to:

A groundwater area in South Australia that is regulated under the Natural Resources Management Act 2004 (SA) where control of groundwater abstraction is needed to secure sustainable management and support water-dependent ecosystems. The regulation is administered by the Department for Water, SA.

This definition applies to:

Omissions from, or misstatements in, the water report entity’s general purpose water accounting report for one or more prior reporting periods arising from a failure to use, or misuse of, reliable information that: (a) was available when general purpose water accounting reports for those reporting periods were issued and (b) could reasonably be expected to have been obtained and taken into account in the preparation and presentation of those general purpose water accounting reports.

This definition applies to:

Water that is self-extracted by the user usually in situ from streams and farm dams (surface water) or from bores (groundwater) for irrigation.

This definition applies to:

Water that is self-extracted by the user usually in situ from streams and farm dams (surface water) or from bores (groundwater) for stock and domestic use.

This definition applies to:

A probabilistic streamflow forecast shows the range of possible streamflow values and how likely it is that they will occur.

This definition applies to:

The greatest depth of precipitation for a given duration meteorologically possible for a given size storm area at a particular location at a particular time of the year, with no allowance made for long-term climatic trends.

Source: World Meteorological Organisation (1986). Manual for Estimation of Probable Maximum Precipitation. Second Edition. Operational Hydrology Report No. 1, WMO – No. 332, Geneva.

This definition applies to:

A water right that is tradeable, falling under the broad category of either water access entitlement or water allocation. A product may be bundled or unbundled and has various attributes such as water resource type (e.g. surface water, groundwater, regulated, unregulated) and reliability type (e.g. high, low priority).

Synonym: water product

This definition applies to:

Collects non-potable water on an opportunistic basis downstream of a major storage. This water is transferred back to the main urban supply reservoirs in order to settle (i.e. reduce turbidity) and become part of the water supply source for that reservoir.

This definition applies to:

Denotes one of a series of threshold values that divides a set of ordered data into groups with an equal number of data points in each. The terms tercile, quartile, quintile, decile and percentile refer to quantiles that divide the distribution of data into 3, 4, 5, 10 and 100 equal parts, respectively.

Related:

This definition applies to:

Queensland Water Commission

This definition applies to:

The total liquid product of precipitation or condensation from the atmosphere, as received and measured in a rain gauge.

Source: learn about meteorology

Related: precipitation

This definition applies to:

Actual rainfall minus the average rainfall.

This definition applies to:

Wetlands of international importance that are representative, rare or unique, or are important for conserving biological diversity and are developed and protected under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance.

This definition applies to:

Data organised as a regular grid or as pixels.

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

This definition applies to:

Represents geographic features by dividing the world into discrete square or rectangular cells laid out in a grid. Each cell has a value that is used to represent some characteristic of that location.

This definition applies to:

Any table showing the relation between two mutually dependent quantities or variables over a given range of magnitude, e.g., a table showing the relationship between the stage in a reservoir and its volume.

Source: NSW Office of Water Water Information Glossary

This definition applies to:

Untreated water.

This definition applies to:

Treated sewage effluent, and:

• includes water extracted by sewer mining and subsequently treated

• does not include treated urban stormwater.

This definition applies to:

The total amount of electromagnetic energy emitted from the sun that is reflected from the ground and irradiates a specified unit horizontal surface from underneath.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

The irradiance emitted from the sun that is reflected from the ground and irradiates a specified unit horizontal surface from underneath.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

(i) Spatial unit on which sub-accounts of the National Water Account are built. (ii) Region is also the name given in the National Water Account to the water accounting concept of water report entity.

This definition applies to:

In the National Water Account, a note that is not specific to a line item but may apply to all or part of the region.

This definition applies to:

Channel on which a licensed entitlement regime exists with centralised allocation, and from which orders may be placed for upstream release of a licensed allocation. A necessary, but not sufficient condition for a channel to be regulated is that it is located downstream of a ‘Storage for Entitlement’.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

The National Water Account considers an entitlement or claim to water to be regulated when all three of the following conditions are met:

  1. The holder of a water entitlement or a claim to water can order the release or delivery of water as per their entitlement or claim.

  2. The volume of water as specified on the entitlement or claim is ‘at call’ and subject to relatively few access conditions under normal circumstances.

  3. The entitlement or claim to water is volumetrically well-specified.

All regulated entitlements and claims to water and actual diversions of flows are reported in the respective water accounting statements of the National Water Account.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

An entitlement or claim to water is considered to be regulated when all three of the following conditions are met:

  1. The holder of a water entitlement or a claim to water can order the release or delivery of water as per their entitlement or claim.
  2. The volume of water as specified on the entitlement or claim is ‘at call’ and subject to relatively few access conditions under normal circumstances.
  3. The entitlement or claim to water is volumetrically well-specified.

All allocations on regulated entitlements and actual diversions of flows are reported in the respective water accounting statements of the National Water Account.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

A channel flow resulting from an upstream release of a licensed allocation.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

A river flow resulting from an upstream release of a licensed allocation. Note: the term river can be replaced by channel with the same meaning.

This definition applies to:

River on which a licensed entitlement regime exists with centralised allocation, and from which orders may be placed for upstream release of a licensed allocation. A necessary, but not sufficient condition for a river to be regulated is that it is located downstream of a surface water storage. Note: the term river can be replaced by channel with the same meaning.

This definition applies to:

A water resource which has its flows controlled through the use of infrastructure to store and release water.

This definition applies to:

A traditional indicator of the air's moisture content. It is the ratio of the amount of moisture actually in the air to the maximum amount of moisture which the air could hold at the same temperature. Relative humidity is normally expressed as a percentage and at saturation the relative humidity will be very close to 100%. The air can hold more moisture at higher temperatures, hence the relative humidity alone does not give an absolute measure of moisture content.

Source: learn about meteorology

This definition applies to:

The frequency with which water allocated under a water access entitlement is able to be supplied in full.

Source: Intergovernmental Agreement on a National Water Initiative Schedule B(ii)

Equivalent: water market equivalent terms

This definition applies to:

Any kind of data recording by a sensor which measures energy emitted or reflected by objects located at some distance from the sensor (i.e. no direct ground contact). Can include aerial photographs, airborne digital sensors and satellite imagery.

Source: Richardson, S., et al., (2011). Australian groundwater-dependent ecosystem toolbox part 1: assessment framework, Waterlines report, National Water Commission, Canberra

This definition applies to:

The end of the last day of the reporting period.

This definition applies to:

A designation given to rainfall monitoring sites that indicates how often, or at what times, observations are reported. The set of frequencies include: • Continuous: sites equipped with continuous rainfall intensity recording devices; commonly referred to as the "Pluviograph Network". • Daily: sites where observations of total daily rainfall or evaporation are made. • Synoptic: sites providing discrete observations of total rainfall at some synoptic hours (e.g. 6am, 12am and 3pm) in addition to 9am.

Related: rainfall

This definition applies to:

The period for which a water accounting report is prepared.

This definition applies to:

The total amount of metered and estimated non-metered, potable and non-potable water supplied to residential properties.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

The volume of returns of water from delivery service providers or water users to surface water assets.

This definition applies to:

In the National Water Account, it is equated to the right to access water, which gives access to a share of the total water resource.

This definition applies to:

Include a broad array of rights, with associated obligations, to access and use water or to have access to water infrastructure and may arise from common or statute law. Such rights include but are not limited to: riparian rights to water in a stream, water access licence or entitlements, annual water allocations, the right to a water supply service that may be subject to restrictions, shares in water distribution infrastructure capacity, the right to trade water entitlement or annual water allocation and the right to use water on a site subject to specified conditions.

This definition applies to:

An area or zone within or along the banks of a stream or adjacent to a watercourse or wetland; relating to a riverbank and its environment, particularly to the vegetation.

Related: riparian zone

This definition applies to:

The interface between land and a river or stream.

Related: riparian

This definition applies to:

A river alert is an advice issued whenever specific rainfall or river height criteria are exceeded at key reporting stations.

This definition applies to:

A summary of observed river heights (metres) at selected locations and specified times within river basins. These bulletins are not available in all States.

This definition applies to:

Produced as part of the Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric (Geofabric). These regions align with, and are nested within, the revised drainage divisions.

Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0

Related:

This definition applies to:

root mean squared error

The square error (SE) is the difference between the observed value and median of the forecast. The RMSE score is the square root of the average SE for a set of forecasts.

root mean squared error in probability

The square error in probability (SEP) is the difference between the historical probabilities of the observed value and median of the forecast. The RMSEP score is the square root of the average SEP for a set of forecasts.

The square error (SE) is the difference between the observed value and median of the forecast. The RMSE score is the square root of the average SE for a set of forecasts.

Related: root mean squared error in probability (RMSEP) score

This definition applies to:

The square error in probability (SEP) is the difference between the historical probabilities of the observed value and median of the forecast. The RMSEP score is the square root of the average SEP for a set of forecasts.

Related: root mean squared error (RMSE) score

This definition applies to:

An organisation that supplies water for irrigation, town and community use in a rural area.

This definition applies to:

Groundwater with a salinity (expressed as Total Dissolved Solids) greater than 3,000 milligrams per litre.

This definition applies to:

The concentration of soluble salts in a solution, soil or other medium.

Source: eWater Toolkit Glossary

This definition applies to:

The part of the lithosphere where each void space in subsurface material is filled with water, or is saturated, under greater pressure than that of the atmosphere.

Source: Poehls DJ and Smith GJ 2009, Encyclopedic dictionary of hydrogeology, Elsevier Inc., 517 pp.

This definition applies to:

South East / southeast

This definition applies to:

A three-month outlook of total streamflow volumes at a site or total inflows into a water storage.

This definition applies to:

For an interim water allocation, a water allocation, a seasonal water assignment or a water licence, means the assignment by the holder of the allocation, notice or licence of the benefit under the allocation, notice or licence to another person, for a water year, of all or part of the water that may be taken under the allocation or notice.

Source: Water Act 2000 (Qld)

This definition applies to:

system of integrated environmental-economic accounting

This definition applies to:

system of environmental-economic accounting for water

This definition applies to:

The infiltration of water from streams, irrigation channels, water storages, farm dams, natural surface water features and septic tanks into the groundwater system. It is a form of surface water–groundwater interaction and groundwater recharge.

This definition applies to:

To take water directly from a water resource for the use of the person who takes the water, but does not include taking water: (a) to provide it to another person, (b) under a stock and domestic right or (c) from an infrastructure operator.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

A small-scale, on-site sewage system that is common in areas with no connection to main sewage systems and uses anaerobic processes to break down wastewater.

This definition applies to:

The SEQ Water Grid was established in July 2008 to connect water supplies and treatment facilities across the South East Queensland region. This provides coordinated management of water resources. See SEQ Water Grid for further information.

This definition applies to:

The process of recovering water from a wastewater system.

This definition applies to:

Loss of shallow groundwater to the atmosphere by evapotranspiration, particularly important in the riparian zone. It includes groundwater uptake by vegetation from beneath the water table but does not include uptake from the unsaturated zone.

This definition applies to:

A vector GIS format for storing geometric location and associated attribute information, that lacks the capacity to store toplogical information. It is developed and regulated by ESRI as a (mostly) open specification for data interoperability.

Source: ESRI

Related: GIS

This definition applies to:

A statistical score used to objectively assess the performance (skill) of a model. A score can be presented absolutely or formulated as a skill score.

Skill Score =(Smod - Sref) / (Sperf - Sref)

Where

Smod = Score for the model forecast

Sref = Score for a reference forecast, usually climatology

Sperf = Score for a perfect forecast, usually 0 or 1

This definition applies to:

Accumulation of snow and ice on the ground.

This definition applies to:

Southern Oscillation Index

An index calculated from the monthly or seasonal fluctuations in the air pressure difference between Tahiti and Darwin. See the Climate page on SOI for more information.

This definition applies to:

The water content in the unsaturated zone of a soil profile.

This definition applies to:

An index calculated from the monthly or seasonal fluctuations in the air pressure difference between Tahiti and Darwin. See the Climate page on SOI for more information.

Related:

This definition applies to:

A water accounting report tailored to the information needs of a user able to command this information.

This definition applies to:

The storage property for an unconfined aquifer that defines the quantity of water that can be drained from an aquifer under the influence of gravity or extracted by pumping.

This definition applies to:

sea surface temperature

This definition applies to:

The level of a water surface. Stage typically refers to river water level at the site of a river gauge.

This definition applies to:

Precedent legislation for administering water rights in each State or Territory (ultimately vested in the Crown) and applicable to all water within the jurisdiction.

This definition applies to:

A pond, lake or basin, whether natural or artificial, for the storage, regulation and control of water.

Synonym: water storage

This definition applies to:

Outflows from water storages of the region. The value can include all or part of the water storages reported under line item 1.1 Storage.

This definition applies to:

Inflows into water storages of the region. The value can include all or part of the water storages reported under line item 1.1 Storage.

This definition applies to:

The elevation of the water surface in a water storage at a particular time and date, measured relative to a specified datum, typically the Australian Height Datum (AHD). See the water storage diagram for application with respect to water storages.

Synonym: water level

This definition applies to:

The volume of water stored at a particular time and date. It excludes the dead storage volume and hence is the volume of water that can be accessed under normal circumstances without the installation of additional infrastructure.

Related: dead storage capacity

Synonym:

This definition applies to:

Storages which are part of the connected surface water store and contain water yet to be shared within an entitlement system. In the National Water Account, storages managed by organisations to provide water to urban centres are included in ‘storages – entitlement system’ as they are considered to contain water yet to be ‘shared’ or ‘abstracted’, even if not formal entitlement system governs the urban water supply.

This definition applies to:

The volume of water a confined aquifer will release when the water-level is lowered. Upon the lowering of water-levels in such aquifers, they remain fully saturated so that no dewatering occurs. The water released is volumetrically equivalent to the volumetric expansion of the water and contraction of the pore space. Also referred to as the coefficient of storage.

This definition applies to:

Excess rainfall that is collected after it has run off urban surfaces.

This definition applies to:

Stormwater that discharges directly into the sea via a stormwater outflow drain located on the coastline.

This definition applies to:

The formation of layers in a water body that show differences in temperature, turbidity, pH, nutrients, salinity, dissolved oxygen or light penetration at various depths.

Source: eWater Toolkit Glossary

This definition applies to:

A watercourse and its tributaries. Can be permanent or ephemeral.

This definition applies to:

The flow of water in streams, rivers and other channels.

Synonym: flow

This definition applies to:

Aquatic animals found in groundwater; sometimes used as a synonym of stygobite.

Source: Tomlinson M and Boulton A 2008, Subsurface groundwater dependent ecosystems: a review of biodiversity, ecological processes and ecosystem services, National Water Commission Waterlines Occasional Paper No. 8, October 2008

This definition applies to:

A water-dependent ecosystem occurring below the surface of the ground within fractured, porous or unconsolidated aquifers, and in caves in both the saturated and vadose zones.

Source: Australian National Aquatic Ecosystem Classification, Subterranean Class – Background briefing note. Aquatic Ecosystems Task Group.

This definition applies to:

The area of the water surface, typically measured when the water storage is at full supply level.

This definition applies to:

A GDE that accesses subsurface groundwater to meet all or some of its water requirements. This includes terrestrial vegetation, subsurface fauna communities (e.g. burrowing crayfish), and some vegetation which is associated with a surface water body.

Source: Eamus, D., Froend, R., Loomes, R., Hose, G., Murray, B., (2006). A functional methodology for determining the groundwater regime needed to maintain the health of groundwater-dependent vegetation, Australian Journal of Botany, 2006, 54, 97–114, 2006.

This definition applies to:

A GDE which uses groundwater after it has been discharged to the surface. This includes all groundwater-fed surface water bodies, such as rivers, wetlands, lakes and springs.

This definition refers only to the aquatic (inundated) component of a system, and therefore excludes any vegetation which may fringe a surface water body.

Source: Eamus, D., Froend, R., Loomes, R., Hose, G., Murray, B., (2006). A functional methodology for determining the groundwater regime needed to maintain the health of groundwater-dependent vegetation, Australian Journal of Botany, 2006, 54, 97–114, 2006.

This definition applies to:

Water from precipitation or other sources that flows over the land surface.

In relation to the water resource assessment, surface runoff is the fraction of precipitation that does not infiltrate at the land surface and may be retained at the surface or result in overland flow toward depressions, streams and other surface water bodies.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

Water that flows over or is stored on the surface of the earth. For the purpose of the National Water Account, this excludes the water in the water distribution system.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

Includes: (a) water in a watercourse, lake or wetland and (b) any water flowing over or lying on land: (i) after having precipitated naturally or (ii) after having risen to the surface naturally from underground.

Source: Water Act 2007 Part 1 Section 4

Equivalent: water market equivalent terms

This definition applies to:

Context 3

Water that flows over or is stored on the surface of the earth. For the purpose of the National Water Account, surface water consists only of water connected, either seasonally or perennially, to the rivers and not yet abstracted for consumptive purpose. It includes water administered by jurisdictions and water stored in surface water storages. It excludes water in off-channel water, urban water systems and irrigation schemes.

This definition applies to:

Water access entitlement granted on the surface water resource.

This definition applies to:

Volume of water resulting from an allocation announcement made on a surface water access entitlement.

This definition applies to:

A transaction to transfer a surface water allocation from one legal entity to another, with or without change in location of the abstraction point. It includes the volume allocated on a previous tagged trade.

This definition applies to:

A region's surface water asset consists of surface water located within the region's boundaries and claims to water that may result in inflows into the region's surface water.

This definition applies to:

Water assets that relate to surface water including water storage – stored or in transit – in catchments, regulated rivers and utility networks and soil moisture. Water storage in utility networks includes all water in works such as pipes regardless of whether these works are above or below the surface of the earth.

This definition applies to:

Outflows from the region's surface water due to natural processes or diversions, and decrease of claims to water held on behalf of the region's surface water.

This definition applies to:

A transaction to transfer for a specified term a surface water access entitlement from one legal entity to another, with or without change in location of the abstraction point.

This definition applies to:

A transaction to transfer perpetually a surface water access entitlement from one legal entity to another, with or without change in location of the abstraction point. It excludes tagged trade where the trade occurred prior to the reporting period.

This definition applies to:

Those hydrological features that convey and/or store water over the surface of the Earth; comprising streams, channels and water storages.

Related:

This definition applies to:

Inflows into the region's surface water or increase of claims to water that may result in inflows into the region's surface water.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

Increases in the surface water assets of a water reporting entity.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

Volume of physical inflows to surface water during the reporting period from outside the region or from other stores.

This definition applies to:

Water liability relating to surface water.

Related: water liability

This definition applies to:

An increase in surface water liability as a result of allocation announcements, etc.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

Decreases in the surface water assets of a water reporting entity.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

Volume of physical outflows from surface water during the reporting period to outside the region or to other stores.

This definition applies to:

Water rights granted by a jurisdiction to access the region's surface water.

This definition applies to:

The groundwater extraction regime, measured over a specified planning timeframe, which allows acceptable levels of stress in groundwater systems and protects dependent economic, social and environmental values.

This definition applies to:

The level of water extraction from a particular system that would compromise key environmental assets, or ecosystem functions and the productive base of the resource, if it were exceeded.

This definition applies to:

Statement of Water Accounting Concepts

This definition applies to:

Trade of water access entitlement between legal entities of different water allocation plans where the entitlement remains subjected to the allocation rules of the water allocation plan where the entitlement was sold (the selling water allocation plan). When an annual allocation announcement is subsequently made on the water access entitlement in the selling water allocation plan, the tag is automatically activated and the original purchaser is credited with the volume allocated, less any applicable exchange rate or transfer loss. In the National Water Account, annual allocation tagged on behalf of the original purchaser are reported together with transfers of water allocations between different legal entities.

This definition applies to:

total dissolved solids

This definition applies to:

A set of data arranged in order with values that partition the data into three groups, each containing one-third of the total data. To define these terciles, the historical data is arranged in order from lowest to highest and then the data is partitioned into three groups. The lowest third of the data values are defined as the lowest tercile, the middle third of the values are the middle tercile and the upper third of the values are the upper tercile.

For example, if you had 100 data values the lowest tercile would contain the 1st–33rd data values, the middle tercile the 34th–67th values and the upper tercile the 68th–100th values.

Related FAQ

This definition applies to:

The sediments formed in the sea from material derived from terrestrial environments by erosion. They comprise sand, mud and silt carried to sea by rivers. Their composition is usually related to their source rocks and deposition of these sediments is largely limited to the continental shelf.

This definition applies to:

The third quartile of a set of numbers is the value in which 75% of the numbers are below it and 25% of the numbers are above it when the numbers are arranged in ascending (increasing) order.

Synonym: 75% quartile

This definition applies to:

In relation to a watercourse, means the maximum upstream location on that watercourse at which a tidal variation in water-level is observed.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

The sum of all particulate material dissolved in water. Usually expressed in terms of milligrams per litre. It can be measured by evaporating the solvent and measuring the mass of residues left or may be estimated from the electrical conductivity of the water.

This definition applies to:

In relation to a water sample, means the measure of all forms of nitrogen found in the water sample, including nitrate, nitrite, ammonia-N and organic forms of nitrogen.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

In relation to a water sample, means the total concentration of all forms of phosphorus found in the water sample.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

The entire volume of water contained by the water storage at full supply level; equal to the sum of the accessible storage capacity plus the dead storage capacity. See the water storage diagram for more information.

Related:

This definition applies to:

In relation to a water sample, means the measure of the particles mixed in the water sample.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

The total volume of water contained within the physical boundaries of the region.

This definition applies to:

The sewage produced by any industry, business, trade or manufacturing process.

This definition applies to:

Are: (a) water access rights, (b) water delivery rights or (c) irrigation rights. Note: Some components within water access rights are not tradeable.

Source: Adapted from the Water Act 2007 Part 1 Section 4

This definition applies to:

Zones established to simplify administration of trade by setting out the known supply source or management arrangements and the physical realities of relevant supply systems within the zone.

Source: Adapted from the Intergovernmental Agreement on a National Water Initiative Schedule B(i)

Equivalent: water market equivalent terms

This definition applies to:

Includes search, negotiation and enforcement costs including, but not limited to, all government water transfer fees and charges applicable to water trade, conveyance charges and professional service fees (such as accountants, brokers, lawyers).

This definition applies to:

The movement of water from one location to another.

Related: inter-basin transfer

This definition applies to:

The rate at which water moves through a unit width of aquifer or aquitard under a unit hydraulic gradient. It is the product of aquifer thickness and hydraulic conductivity.

Source: Richardson, S., et al., (2011). Australian groundwater-dependent ecosystem toolbox part 1: assessment framework, Waterlines report, National Water Commission, Canberra

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

The giving off of water vapour from parts of plants, especially through the stomata of leaves.

Related: evapotranspiration

This definition applies to:

Context 2

Evaporation loss of water from the leaves of plants through the stomata; the flow of water through plants from soil to atmosphere.

Source: eWater Toolkit Glossary

Related:

This definition applies to:

Water generated from sewage, greywater or storm water systems that is treated to achieve sub-tertiary quality. The main difference between treated wastewater and recycled water is quality, and quality is determined by the level of treatment. Wastewater treated to achieve super-tertiary quality is called recycled water.

This definition applies to:

Terrestrial animals living in caves and other air-filled subterranean spaces.

Source: Tomlinson M and Boulton A 2008, Subsurface Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems: a review of biodiversity, ecological processes and ecosystem services, National Water Commission Waterlines Occasional Paper No 8, October 2008

This definition applies to:

In relation to a water sample, means the amount of small particles of solid matter suspended in the water sample, measured by the amount of scattering and absorption of light rays caused by the particles.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

Unified Modelling Language

This definition applies to:

An unexplained change in water assets and water liabilities during the reporting period.

This definition applies to:

The separation of a ‘bundled’ right into its individual elements. At its most basic level, unbundling separate water rights from a land property title, allowing the trade of the water rights independently of land. Additional degrees of unbundling involve the separation of a water right into its individual elements. These might include, but are not limited to, water access entitlements, water allocations, water use rights, delivery rights and works approvals.

Equivalent: water market equivalent terms

This definition applies to:

An uncertainty rating provided by Department of Environment and Resource Management for all line items provided by the department. The uncertainty ratings utilise the below adopted method from the National Performance Framework 2009-10 Urban Water Performance Report Auditing Requirements and Audit Report Template.

Reliability (A, B, C, D)

A Based on sound records with adequate procedures

B Mostly conforms to A but some deviations which have minor impact on integrity

C Data has significant procedural deviations or extrapolation

D Unsatisfactory data.

Accuracy (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

1 +/- 5%

2 +/- 10%

3 +/- 20%

4 +/- 50%

5 Greater than +/- 50%.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

An aquifer whose upper surface is a water table free to fluctuate in equilibrium with atmospheric pressure.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

An aquifer in which there are no confining beds between the saturated zone and the surface. There will be a water table in an unconfined aquifer.

Source: National Water Commission Water Dictionary

This definition applies to:

Water that is not stored for the purpose of supplying the orders of downstream users.

This definition applies to:

Channel where there is no entitlement system at all or where there is an entitlement system which does not allow orders to be placed for upstream release of a licensed allocation.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

The National Water Account considers an entitlement or claim to water to be unregulated when the holder of a water entitlement or a claim to water cannot order the release or delivery of water. The holder must abstract or otherwise exercise their entitlement or claim subject to that water being available in the watercourse.

For unregulated entitlements, only actual diversions resulting from the exercise of the claim are reported in the water accounting statements, not the claim itself.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

An entitlement or claim to water is considered to be unregulated when the holder of a water entitlement or a claim to water cannot order the release or delivery of water. The holder must abstract or otherwise exercise their entitlement or claim subject to that water being available in the watercourse. For unregulated entitlements, only actual diversions resulting from the exercise of the claim are reported in the water accounting statements, not the claim itself. An unregulated entitlement may exist on a regulated river, where it gives access to unregulated flows.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

A channel flow that does not result from a controlled release made to service an allocation, or flows declared to be unregulated by the appropriate authority. Unregulated flow can occur both in an unregulated channel and in a regulated channel, in case of a flow event that could not be retained and controlled by the upstream infrastructure.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

A river flow that does not result from a controlled release made to service an allocation, or flows declared to be unregulated by the appropriate authority. Unregulated flow can occur both in an unregulated river and in a regulated river, in case of a flow event that could not be retained and controlled by the upstream infrastructure. Note: the term river can be replaced by channel with the same meaning.

This definition applies to:

A river where there is no entitlement system at all or where there is an entitlement system which does not allow orders to be placed for upstream release of a licensed allocation. Note: the term river can be replaced by channel with the same meaning.

This definition applies to:

A water resource that is not controlled through the use of infrastructure to store and release water.

This definition applies to:

There are multiple contexts for this item

Context 1

The soil between the land surface and the regional water table in which the pore space contains both air and water.

This definition applies to:

Context 2

The areas below the ground where void spaces are filled with a mixture of water under pressure less than atmospheric which includes water held by capillarity and air (gases) under atmospheric pressure.

Source: Poehls DJ and Smith GJ 2009, Encyclopedic dictionary of hydrogeology, Elsevier Inc., 517 pp.

Related: unsaturated zone

Synonym: vadose zone

This definition applies to:

The upward movement of groundwater from a deep aquifer to an overlying aquifer.

This definition applies to:

The total amount of terrestrial electromagnetic energy emitted from the Earth’s surface that irradiates a specified unit horizontal surface from underneath.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

The long-wave irradiance emitted by the Earth’s surface that irradiates a specified unit horizontal surface from underneath.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

Water in the urban stormwater drainage system.

This definition applies to:

Urban stormwater that has been treated and reused.

This definition applies to:

Urban waste water that has received some form of treatment. If re-used, it is a form of recycled water.

This definition applies to:

Urban waste water that has not received any form of treatment. If re-used, it is a form of recycled water.

This definition applies to:

The total residential, commercial, municipal, industrial and other water supplied by urban water utilities.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

Constituted by three different components:

  1. Urban water delivery system: which conveys water abstracted from the different water sources in the region or that has been transferred into the system from outside the region (including desalination water).
  2. Urban wastewater system: which collects water after use, conveys it to the wastewater treatment plant and then discharges it into the environment.
  3. Urban recycled system: which recycles treated wastewater and discharges it to storages, before it is re-used for urban or irrigation purpose.

This definition applies to:

The volume of water (potable, non-potable and recycled water) supplied to customers over a reporting period.

This definition applies to:

It includes the following system: 1) potable and non-potable water supply, including pipes and tanks and off-stream ponds, which regulate water flow for operational purpose and not medium to long term water storage. 2) wastewater collection, including wastewater lagoons and ponds, pipes, tanks, pits, sumps and storages. 3) recycled water supply, including pipes, tanks and storage reservoirs.

Related: urban water distribution system

This definition applies to:

Water located in the urban water system within the region's boundaries and claims to water that may result in inflows into the region's urban water system.

This definition applies to:

Outflows from the region's urban water system due to natural processes or delivery of water, and decrease of claims to water held on behalf of the region's urban water system.

Related: water distribution system decreases

This definition applies to:

Inflows into the region's urban water system or increase of claims to water that may result in inflows into the region's urban water system.

Related: water distribution system increases

This definition applies to:

Volume of physical inflows to the urban water system during the reporting period; from outside the region or from other stores.

Related: water distribution system inflows

This definition applies to:

Water liability relating to the urban water system.

Related: water distribution system liability

This definition applies to:

Decreases in the region's urban water system liability. It includes adjustment or forfeiture of the obligation to deliver water from the urban water system. It excludes actual delivery of water.

This definition applies to:

Increases in the region's urban water system water liability. It includes all recognised commitments to deliver water from the region's urban water system.

This definition applies to:

Outflows from the urban water system; to outside the region or to other stores. For example the discharge of treated wastewater to a river or to the sea.

Related: water distribution system outflows

This definition applies to:

The areas below the ground where void spaces are filled with a mixture of water under pressure less than atmospheric which includes water held by capillarity and air (gases) under atmospheric pressure.

Source: Poehls DJ and Smith GJ 2009, Encyclopedic dictionary of hydrogeology, Elsevier Inc., 517 pp.

Synonym: unsaturated zone

This definition applies to:

The difference between the amount of moisture in the air and how much moisture the air can hold when it is saturated.

Source: Water Regulations 2008 Schedule 3 Part 1

This definition applies to:

Data organised as geometry consisting of points, lines and polygons.

This definition applies to:

The volume of water stored at a particular time a