Australian Water Availability Project

The aim of the Australian Water Availability Project (AWAP) is to monitor the state and trend of the terrestrial water balance of the Australian continent, using model-data fusion methods to combine both measurements and modelling. The project determines the past history and present state of soil moisture and all water fluxes contributing to changes in soil moisture (rainfall, transpiration, soil evaporation, surface runoff and deep drainage), across the entire Australian continent at a spatial resolution of 5 km. Using the same basic framework, the project provides soil moistures and water fluxes over the Australian continent in three forms: (1) weekly near-real-time reporting, (2) historical monthly time series (1900 to present), and (3) monthly climatologies.

The long-term intention is to contribute to integrated monitoring and understanding of the dynamics of Australian landscape systems, especially responses to climate variability and change, and thus to assist adaptive, system-wide management through feedback via measurement and monitoring.

Water Balance Maps:

• Weekly (2007 and ongoing)
• Monthly (2007 and ongoing)
• Monthly 1900-2007
• Annual 1900-2007

• Phase 3 Final Report (3.5 Mb, PDF)

• CSIRO AWAP Brochure (874 KB, PDF)

• ReadMe file for the data including key references, contacts and citation information (TXT)

• For public access to the data please contact Peter Briggs. Currently AWAP model results (excluding BoM meteorology) are a research level product and are available for collaborative use with CSIRO AWAP team members. Where AWAP model data are to be used for significant scientific outputs (such as publications) we will wish to discuss co-authorship.

• Bureau of Meteorology - AWAP
• Bureau of Rural Sciences - Rural Water