The Surface Hydrology Points (Regional) dataset provides a set of related features classes to be used as the basis of the production of consistent hydrological information. This dataset contains a geometric representation of major hydrographic point elements - both natural and artificial. This dataset is the best available data supplied by Jurisdictions and aggregated by Geoscience Australia it is intended for defining hydrological features.

In many areas of the world, vegetation dynamics in semi-arid floodplain environments have been seriously impacted by increased river regulation and groundwater use. In this study, the condition of two of Australia's iconic riparian and floodplain vegetation elements, River Red Gums (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) and Black Box (E. largiflorens) are examined in relation to differing hydraulic regimes. With increases in regulation along Murray-Darling Basin rivers, flood volume, seasonality and frequency have changed which has in turn affected the condition and distribution of vegetation. Rather than undertaking a field based assessment of tree health in response to current water regimes, this paper documents a remote sensing study that assessed historic response of vegetation to a range of different climatic and hydraulic regimes at a floodplain scale. This methodology innovatively combined high-resolution vegetation structural mapping derived from LiDAR data (Canopy Digital Elevation Model and Foliage Projected Cover) with 23 years of Landsat time-series data. Statistical summaries of Normalised Difference Vegetation Index values were generated for each spatially continuous vegetation structural class (e.g. stand of closed forest) for each Landsat scene. Consequently long-term temporal change in vegetation condition was assessed against different water regimes (drought, local rainfall, river bank full, overbank flow, and lake filling). Results provide insight into vegetation response to different water sources and overall water availability. Additionally, some inferences can be made about lag times associated with vegetation response and the duration of the response once water availability has declined (e.g. after floodwaters recede). This methodology should enable water managers to better assess the adequacy of environmental flows.

Elevation data is a point, line or surface geographically located in the x and y relative to a horizontal datum, that includes a height (z) above or below a known vertical datum. Bathymetry will deal with all offshore elevation data. - Elevation data will include both raw elevation data and digital elevation models (DEM); - Spot Heights, points on the earth's surface, of known elevation. - Contours, lines which represents an imaginary line on the ground joining points of equal elevation. - Horizontal Control Points, points on the ground, the horizontal position of which has been determined by geodetic survey. - Digital Elevation Models (DEM) are interpolated representations of a surface. Elevation points are spaced at a regular interval so as to create a grid or lattice. These grids can be directly observed or, more generally, they are computed from more than one of the above mentioned irregular spaced elevations. - Digital Terrain Models (DTM) are bare earth DEM's representing the terrain They are interpolated using a combination of elevation information and could also be constrained using break lines, such are cliffs, drainage, coast etc. - Digital Surface Models (DSM) are also DEM's, but they include non-surface objects like trees, buildings etc. So, a DSM = DTM + all non surface objects. - Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN). A vector data structure that partitions geographic space into contiguous, nonoverlapping triangles. The vertices of each triangle are sample data points with x, y, and z values. These sample points are connected by lines to form Delaunay triangles. TINs are used to store and display elevation models. - Hydrologically enforced Digital Elevation Models (HDEM) represents DEM with drainage enforcement. The quality of a DEM is a measure of how accurate elevation is at each pixel (absolute accuracy) and how accurately the morphology is represented (relative accuracy). Several factors affect the quality of DEM-derived products: terrain roughness, sampling density (elevation data collection method), grid resolution or pixel size, interpolation algorithm, vertical resolution and terrain analysis algorithm.

The 1 second SRTM derived DEM-H Version 1.0 is a 1 arc second (~30 m) gridded digital elevation model (DEM) that has been hydrologically conditioned and drainage enforced. The DEM-H captures flow paths based on SRTM elevations and mapped stream lines, and supports delineation of catchments and related hydrological attributes. The dataset was derived from the 1 second smoothed Digital Elevation Model (DEM-S; ANZCW0703014016) by enforcing hydrological connectivity with the ANUDEM software, using selected AusHydro V1.6 (February 2010) 1:250,000 scale watercourse lines (ANZCW0503900101) and lines derived from DEM-S to define the watercourses. The drainage enforcement has produced a consistent representation of hydrological connectivity with some elevation artefacts resulting from the drainage enforcement. A full description of the methods is in preparation (Dowling et al., in prep). This product is the last of the Version 1.0 series derived from the 1 second SRTM (DSM, DEM, DEM-S and DEM-H) and provides a DEM suitable for use in hydrological analysis such as catchment definition and flow routing.

The 9 second DEM derived streams are a a fully connected and directed stream network produced in rastor and vector fomats by Australian National University. This product is the raster format, for the the vector product please refer to the Bureau of Meterology's Geofabric Website (http://www.bom.gov.au/water/geofabric/index.shtml). It is built upon the representation of surface drainage patterns provided by the GEODATA national 9 second Digital Elevation Model (DEM) Version 3 (ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society and Geoscience Australia, 2008).

Mean monthly and mean annual areal actual, areal potential and point potential evapotranspiration grids. The grids show the evapotranspiration values across Australia in the form of two-dimensional array data. The mean data are based on the standard 30-year period 1961-1990. Gridded data were generated using the ANU (Australian National University) 3-D Spline (surface fitting algorithm). The grid point resolution of the data is 0.1 degrees ( approximately 10km). As part of the 3-D analysis process a 0.1 degree resolution digital elevation model (DEM) was used. Approximately 700 stations were used in the analysis, and all input station data underwent a high degree of quality control before analysis, and conform to WMO (World Meteorological Organisation) standards for data quality. Areal Actual ET is the ET that actually takes place, under the condition of existing water supply, from an area so large that the effects of any upwind boundary transitions are negligible and local variations are integrated to an areal average. Areal Potential ET is the ET that would take place, under the condition of unlimited water supply, from an area so large that the effects of any upwind boundary transitions are negligible and local variations are integrated to an areal average. Point Potential ET is the ET that would take place, under the condition of unlimited water supply, from an area so small that the local ET effects do not alter local airmass properties. It is assumed that latent and sensible heat transfers within the height of measurement are through convection only. The above definitions are based on those given by Morton (1983), but we have used the term areal potential ET for Mortons wet-environment ET and the term point potential ET for Mortons potential ET. Morton, F.I. (1983). Operational estimates of areal evapotranspiration and their significance to the science and practice of hydrology. Journal of Hydrology, 66: 1-76.

The Environmental Attributes Database is a set of lookup tables supplying attributes describing the natural and anthropogenic characteristics of the stream and catchment environment that was developed by the Australian National University (ANU) in 2011 and updated in 2012. The data is supplied as part of the supplementary Geofabric products which is associated with the 9 second DEM derived streams and the National Catchment Boundaries based on 250k scale stream network. Please consult the spreadsheet below for details of the attributes and their source data. Version 1.1.5 corrects an error in the connectivity.lut table where the field ARTFBARIER for a subset of records did not correctly flag the presence of an artificial barrier up or downstream of the stream segment.

This document describes a structure for exchanging information to assist discovery and retrieval/transfer of flood information, including GIS flood mapping data. The draft class model represents metadata, data and summary information that supports the goals of the National Flood Risk Information Project (NFRIP) to improve the quality, consistency and accessibility of flood information. This document describes the data model that will be used to create an application schema.

This dataset was created for the National Geochemical Survey of Australia (NGSA) to help determine the location of target sites for sampling catchment outlet sediments in the lower reach of defined river catchments. Each polygon represents a surface drainage catchment derived from a national scale 9 second (approximately 250 m) resolution digital elevation model. Catchments were extracted from an unpublished, interim version of a nested catchment framework with an optimal catchment area of 5000 km2. Only catchments from the Australian mainland and Tasmania were included. In order to generate catchments approaching the optimal area, catchments with an area of less than 1000 km2 were excluded from the dataset, while other small catchments were amalgamated, and catchments much larger than 5000 km2 were split.

The Surface Hydrology Polygons (National) dataset presents the spatial locations of surface hydrology polygon features and its attributes. The dataset represents the Australia's surface hydrology at a national scale. It includes natural and man-made geographic features such as: watercourse areas, swamps, reservoirs, canals, etc. This product presents hydrology polygon features which will topological connect with the hydrology line features and forms a complete flow path network for the entire continental of Australia.