Weather bureau launches water storage website

Data to be made available under CC-BY license.

The Bureau of Meteorology has launched a water storage site built on its database of 250 publicly owned water storages around the country.

Launched last week after three years' work, the site covered 90 percent of Australia's water and was underpinned by the Australian Water Resources Information System (AWRIS) and the Government's 10-year, $12.9 billion Water for our Future plan.

The AWRIS received, standardised, organised and interpreted data from various sources. It featured information from the past two years to show how Australian water stores had changed over time.

Built in Java, the AWRIS used open source technologies including Red Hat Linux, MySQL, data integration product Talend Open Studio, and the Sun Glassfish Enterprise Server.

It was developed in partnership with integrator SMS Management and Technology,and used the CSIRO-developed Water Data Transfer Format.

Most data was licensed under the Government-preferred CC-BY license, The Bureau planned to add a data download feature so users could use this information in their own analysis, planning, reporting and modelling.

Speaking at the site's launch last week, Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water, Senator Don Farrell said it would enable better understanding and management of water.

"This new product is an important step in providing the Australian community with a consistent and comprehensive national picture of Australia's water resources," he said.