National Water Account 2015

Melbourne: Accountability Statement

City of Melbourne, Victoria (iStock © Blues and Views)

1. This water accounting report has been prepared and presented in accordance with the Australian Water Accounting Standard 1, with the following exceptions:

  • No assurance statement was prepared because the practice of assurance of water accounting reports is currently being developed.
  • Notes on the quantification approaches and levels of uncertainty are incomplete because the knowledge base is often inadequate.
  • No information is disclosed about material events that occurred after 30 June 2015, such as extreme precipitation and significant water rights purchases. This information is publicly available elsewhere.
  • Asset changes for water stores (surface water and groundwater) have been included in the Statement of Changes in Water Assets and Water Liabilities, without a corresponding water store asset volume being included in the Statement of Water Assets and Water Liabilities for the following items:

        – Unregulated river
        – Regulated river
        – Urban water supply system
        – Recycled water system

    This is because water store flows and levels could be quantified but storage volumes for these items could not.
  • The volumes of water assets and water liabilities including the volumes of changes to water assets and water liabilities that failed the recognition criteria were reported in the water accounting statements with dashes ('–') in order to highlight data and knowledge gaps that may affect the water accounting statement balances.

2. The report has been compiled from the best data available, as detailed in the water accounting statement notes, in the time available to compile it from a number of sources. The Bureau of Meteorology takes a nationally-consistent approach to report preparation and presentation, but for a few items there may be local data of higher quality that were not used.

3. All significant and specific interpretations of the Australian Water Accounting Standard 1 for the purpose of the preparation of this report are explained in the 'Water accounting policies' note. The Bureau of Meteorology is responsible for these interpretations.

 

Ian Prosser

Assistant Director, Water Information Services

Bureau of Meteorology

2 May 2016