Geoscience Australia (GA) has developed an interactive 3D virtual globe viewer to facilitate effective communication of geoscience data and scientific findings to a wide range of stakeholders. The interactive virtual globe is built on NASA's open source World Wind Java Software Development Kit (SDK) and provides users with easy and rich access to geoscientific data. The tool has been used to launch a number of national and regional datasets, including sub-surface seismic and airborne electromagnetic data (AEM) in conjunction with other relevant geoscience data. For the Broken Hill Managed Aquifer (BHMAR Project, there was a requirement to further develop the existing viewer platform in order to display complex 3D hydrogeological, hydrogeophysical and hydrogeochemical data (points, lines, 2D surface and 3D shapes). The final product includes support for a variety of geo-referenced raster data formats, as well as vector data such as ESRI shapefiles; native support for a variety of GOCAD data types including TSurf, SGrid, Voxet and PLine. It also supports well and borehole data including attribute-based styling of log features and the ability to include legends and descriptions of data within the user interface. An easy-to-use interface has been customised for navigation of data in 3D space using a virtual globe model, with powerful keyframe based animation tools used to generate flythrough animations for use in knowledge communication workshops. The products will be distributed as data layers via the internet and as a stand alone DVD package.

One of the primary requirements of managing our water resources sustainably is an understanding of the water balance. Key components of a water balance model are inputs of recharge and outputs or discharge. Rates of recharge and discharge change in response to climate, landscape morphology, geology, soil/regolith, native vegetation and landuse (including landuse history). The variable nature of these parameters results in a high degree of local variability when determining recharge and discharge fluxes both spatially and temporally. Water managers deal with this complexity in a variety of ways. Where detailed information on key parameters influencing recharge and discharge are available, comprehensive, fully distributed groundwater models are used. However, in most cases this information is not available (e.g. data poor areas) and typically a crude estimation of recharge (2-10% of average annual rainfall) is given. In these cases, discharge is often assumed to be zero. A collaborative project, funded by NWC and involving CSIRO Land and Water and Geoscience Australia, has developed a new national framework for estimating recharge and discharge in data poor areas. The approach consists of excel-based models that allow the user to populate key input fields (e.g. rainfall, soil and regolith texture, bedrock type, vegetation) to generate estimates of recharge and discharge. These excel models have been coupled with a complementary national-scale GIS dataset to assist the user in populating model input fields. In combination, the models and the GIS datasets allow the user to rapidly estimate recharge and/or discharge anywhere in Australia. The national-scale GIS datasets are available through a WEB-based interface. This presentation will focus on the development of the input datasets and will provide a brief demonstration of the WEB-based interface.

Legacy product - no abstract available

Legacy product - no abstract available

This is the second quarterly report on the progress of the Murray Basin Hydrogeological Project. In this report an outline map of the basin is included to indicate where activities have occurred during the quarter, and the general statement describing the Project forms the appendix. Participating organisations are the Geological Survey of New South Wales, the Water Resources Commission of New South Wales, the Geological Survey of Victoria, the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission of Victoria, the Department of Mines and Energy of South Australia, and the Bureau of Mineral Resources.

During the period under review, progress with the first phase of the Project continued. Two items of interest, described in more detail in this report, are the start of IGCP Project 184 'Palaeohydrology of low latitude deserts', and Bureau of Mineral Resources field work in the northwest New South Wales part of the Basin with the objective of adding more detail to the surface geology as depicted on existing 1:500 000 scale maps. The Steering Committee met in Melbourne on 10 June.

This interim report documents progress against the Project Plan and Project Scope for the Broken Hill Managed Aquifer Recharge Project, Phase 1. Specifically, the report covers: (1) the investigative methodology being used for the Phase 1 Risk Assessment (2) details of key data (assessed/) obtained to meet the project outcomes (3) indicative findings to date. An assessment of pre-existing geospatial, hydrogeological, geophysical and borehole data in the Broken Hill area has identified 6 potential priority areas for further investigation. Initial investigations in these 6 priority areas support the general findings and recommendations of Lewis et al. (2008), and re-affirm the view that there is significant potential to develop options for the Broken Hill Managed Aquifer Recharge (BHMAR) project. In summary, the project is on track to deliver on the Phase 1 Risk Assessment as scheduled (by end February 2009).

Steady progress with the first phase of the Projectcontinued. Two highlights during the period described in this report are first, the design and implementation of a preliminary groundwater model of the whole Basin, and second, the field inspection of parts of the Basin in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales undertaken by Project workers during October 1981 mainly to discuss stratigraphic correlation problems. The Steering Committee met in Sydney on 5th November, 1981.

Technical report on operational activities, including data, analysis and interpretation, for the Paterson demonstration study site conducted for the Palaeovalley Groundwater Project. This work was funded by the National Water Commission and managed by Geoscience Australia.

This product has been archived and while it is still available for download, Geoscience Australia can no longer offer related support or advice. Legacy product - no abstract available