Charting Australia’s changing hydrological extremes from the past to the present through to the future

In a changing climate, Australia’s ability to protect life and property against water related hazards such as floods, landslides, bushfires and droughts, will depend on high quality water resource information which is consistent across spatio-temporal scales. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has recently released a new service: The Australian Water Outlook (awo.bom.gov.au) which provides nationally consistent water information including historical to near-real time hydrological monitoring, seasonal forecasts and long-term projections, offering a seamless perspective of Australian hydrology.

 

We exploit the seamless nature of this dataset to track the change in frequency, duration, magnitude and spatial extent of hydrological extreme events such as hydrological, agricultural and meteorological droughts, floods, and heavy rainfall events, using a range of different indicators, across different hydro-climate regions in Australia. Taking a multiple lines of evidence approach by using a combination of indicators which leverage water balance components of rainfall, soil moisture, evapotranspiration and runoff, we can reduce uncertainty in extreme event identification, and estimated magnitude and duration. Charting hydrological extreme events across regions and timescales will bolster Australia’s emergency management efforts in planning, preparedness and response as well as facilitate recovery.