Globally, water data and information is essential for sustainable planning, management and to develop sustainable goals for resilient water resources also taking changes in climate pattern and other drivers into account. To provide better insights there is also a need to be able to synthesize granular water data that can be localised and combined at various spatial scales.
The Australian National Plan for Water Security recognised that better water information was essential for maintaining water security during Australia's inevitable droughts, with the latest, the Millennium Drought occurring from 1996 to mid-2010. At the time, the Government as well as policy and decision makers were facing a water crisis but had no nationally consistent and accessible data. With data gaps, no standardisation, transparency, and accessibility this data was difficult to compare across the country or useful for providing national insights.
Many tools and data sources have been developed since then and are now available. This session will discuss the global water data information challenges and solutions, how these particular translated into Australia’s water sector to facilitate informed decision making processes. It will provide and share the Australian experience in response to these water data and information challenges journey over the last 10 years spotlighting on available water data, information and tools and their usefulness accompanied by user cases in terms of industry and community. The session also invites acquired international experiences in water data, information management and use