Water Information Research and Development Alliance (WIRADA)

Transforming Australia's water resources information

Water scarcity is a major challenge facing Australia. The need to accurately monitor, assess and forecast the availability, condition and use of water resources is now more vital than ever.

Water resources information is currently collected and held by hundreds of organisations across Australia, making it difficult to monitor the status and use of Australia's water resources and to accurately forecast water availability.

The Bureau of Meteorology's role has expanded to include transforming Australia's water resources information by improving its accessibility, integration and use. These improvements will be achieved through substantial innovation and will yield huge benefits through more informed policy and infrastructure decisions.

A water information alliance

Together, CSIRO's Water for a Healthy Country Flagship and the Bureau of Meteorology has established the Water Information Research and Development Alliance (WIRADA). WIRADA is a strategic investment of A$50 million over five years that will yield most of the innovation required by the Bureau in support of its national water information role.

The alliance brings together Water for a Healthy Country's leading expertise in water and information sciences with the Bureau's new operational responsibilities in water information.

A major R&D program

WIRADA will deliver new science and technology that will enable the Bureau to operationalise real-time interactive analysis of water information and advanced methods for forecasting of water availability and flooding across Australia.

WIRADA brings together over 40 leading researchers from CSIRO in the fields of:

• data interoperability
• hydrologic modelling
• water accounting
• water resource assessment.

The outcome

Through WIRADA, the adoption of CSIRO's leading science and technology by the Bureau will result in vastly improved water data integration, water resource assessments, national water accounts, flood forecasts and water availability outlooks.

• View the WIRADA brochure (PDF format)
• View the Media Release - $50 million for new water research alliance

WIRADA Bridging Projects

• The Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric – Development Methodology and Conceptual Architecture
• Web-based Visualisation of Water Information: an overview

 

WIRADA - a water information R&D initiative between the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO's Water for a Healthy Country Flagship