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  • <div>The A1 poster incorporates 4 images of Australia taken from space by Earth observing satellites. The accompanying text briefly introduces sensors and the bands within the electromagnetic spectrum. The images include examples of both true and false colour and the diverse range of applications of satellite images such as tracking visible changes to the Earth’s surface like crop growth, bushfires, coastal changes and floods. Scientists, land and emergency managers use satellite images to analyse vegetation, surface water or human activities as well as evaluate natural&nbsp;hazards.</div>

  • In this study, various hydrochemical approaches were used to understand recharge processes in shallow (<120m) unconsolidated alluvial sediments in a 7,500 km2 area of the Darling River floodplain. Pore fluids were extracted from sediments from 60 sonic-cored bores, and together with surface and groundwater samples, provided a hydrochemical dataset with over 1600 samples and 25 analytes. Major ion chemistry highlights a mixing signature between river waters, the shallow unconfined aquifer and the underlying semi-confined Calivil Formation aquifer. These represent the fresh groundwater resources near the river and are Na-(Ca-Mg)-HCO3-Cl waters. Away from the influence of river leakage, the regional groundwater is more saline and sodic with an evolved Na-Cl-SO4 watertype. The mixing associated with river leakage is also supported by age dating. Stable isotope data show that recharge is episodic and linked to high-flow flood events rather than continuous river leakage, as demonstrated by hydrographic monitoring. The combination of surface water and groundwater sampling, the pore fluid analyses and fuzzy-k means (FCM) cluster analysis, provides a novel, relatively simple but powerful tool to assist with interpretation of groundwater processes. The FCM cluster analysis used analytes that were present in at least 60% of samples and resulted in samples being classified into eight classes (or hydrochemical facies). Pore fluids and groundwater with the greatest affinity to the surface water samples were easily identified. In this way, sites with significant active recharge, principally by river leakage, were mapped. Downhole plots of the pore fluid FCM classes provided additional insights into groundwater processes. Comparing the FCM classification of pore fluids within the target (semi)confined aquifer with those from the overlying clay aquitard and shallow aquifer allowed the assessment of vertical inter-aquifer leakage.

  • This paper introduces the work of the National Flood Risk Advisory Group in providing advice and guidance on the management of flood risk in Australia, in particular its work on the development of a set of national guidelines. The guidelines are included as an appendix and they highlight that communities utilise the support and cooperation of departments and agencies across all levels of government to effectively access the broad range of skills and the funding essential to implement flood risk management solutions. The paper discusses the more important flood risk considerations embodied in the guidelines.

  • The Flood Study Summary Services support discovery and retrieval of flood hazard information. The services return metadata and data for flood studies and flood inundation maps held in the 'Australian Flood Studies Database'. The same information is available through a user interface at http://www.ga.gov.au/flood-study-web/. A 'flood study' is a comprehensive technical investigation of flood behaviour. It defines the nature and extent flood hazard across the floodplain by providing information on the extent, level and velocity of floodwaters and on the distribution of flood flows. Flood studies are typically commissioned by government, and conducted by experts from specialist engineering firms or government agencies. Key outputs from flood studies include detailed reports, and maps showing inundation, depth, velocity and hazard for events of various likelihoods. The services are deliverables fom the National Flood Risk Information Project. The main aim of the project is to make flood risk information accessible from a central location. Geoscience Australia will facilitate this through the development of the National Flood Risk Information Portal. Over the four years the project will launch a new phase of the portal prior to the commencement of each annual disaster season. Each phase will increase the amount of flood risk information that is publicly accessible and increase stakeholder capability in the production and use of flood risk information. flood-study-search returns summary layers and links to rich metadata about flood maps and the studies that produced them. flood-study-map returns layers for individual flood inundation maps. Typically a single layer shows the flood inundation for a particular likelihood or historical event in a flood study area. To retrieve flood inundation maps from these services, we recommend: 1. querying flood-study-search to obtain flood inundation map URIs, then 2. using the flood inundation map URIs to retrieve maps separately from flood-study-map. The ownership of each flood study remains with the commissioning organisation and/or author as indicated with each study, and users of the database should refer to the reports themselves to determine any constraints in their usage.

  • An integrated multi-scale approach has been used to map and assess shallow (<100m) aquitards in unconsolidated alluvial sediments beneath the Darling River floodplain. The study integrated a regional-scale (7,500km2) airborne electromagnetics (AEM) survey with targeted ground electrical surveys, downhole lithological and geophysical (induction, gamma and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)) logging, hydraulic testing and hydrogeochemistry obtained from a 100 borehole (7.5km) sonic and rotary drilling program. Electrical conductivity mapping confirmed a relatively continuous lacustrine Blanchetown Clay aquitard, mostly below the water table. The Blanchetown Clay is typically 5-10m thick with a maximum thickness of 18m but, importantly, can also be absent. Variations (up to 60m) in the elevation of the aquitard top surface are attributed partly to neotectonics, including warping, discrete fault offsets, and regional tilting. Hydrograph responses in overlying and underlying aquifers, laboratory permeameter measurements on cores, and hydrogeochemical data demonstrate where the Blanchetown Clay acts as an effective aquitard. In these areas, the AEM and induction logs can show an electrical conductivity (EC) decrease towards the centre of the clay rich aquitard, contrary to the typical response of saturated clays. Even though the aquitard centre is below the watertable, core moisture data and NMR total water logs indicate very low water content, explaining the relatively low EC response. The NMR logs also indicate that the clay aquitard is partially saturated both from the top and the bottom. This suggests very low hydraulic conductivities for the aquitard resulting in negligible vertical leakage in these areas. This is supported by core permeameter measurements of less than 10-12 m/s.

  • This talk presents an overview of flood vulnerability research in the Community Safety Branch at Geoscience Australia. It covers work looking at the tangible and intangible costs of floods. Vulnerability models for residential, commercial and industrial buildings are described. The cost-effectiveness of structural mitigation options have been evaluated in recent work undertaken in collaboration with Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC. The presentation highlights the utility of this research in reducing flood risk in Australian communities.

  • <b>This record was retired 29/03/2022 with approval from S.Oliver as it has been superseded by eCat 146091 Geoscience Australia Landsat Water Observation Statistics Collection 3</b> WOfS-STATS (WO_STATS_2.1.5) is a set of statistical summaries of the water observations contained in WOfS (WO_2.1.5). The layers available are: the count of clear observations;the count of wet observations;the percentage of wet observations over time. This product is Water Observations from Space - Statistics (WO-STATS), a set of statistical summaries of the WOfS product that combines the many years of WOfS observations into summary products that help the understanding of surface water across Australia. WO-STATS consists of the following datasets: Clear Count: how many times an area could be clearly seen (ie. not affected by clouds, shadows or other satellite observation problems), Wet Count: how many times water was detected inobservations that were clear, Water Summary: what percentage of clear observations were detected as wet (ie. the ration of wet to clear as a percentage) As no confidence filtering is applied to this product, it is affected by noise where misclassifications have occurred in the WOfS water classifications, and hence can be difficult to interpret on its own. The confidence layer and filtered summary are contained in the WO-Fil-STATS product, which provide a noise-reduced view of the water summary. WO-STATS is available in multiple forms, depending on the length of time over which the statistics are calculated. At present the following are available: WO-STATS: statistics calculated from the full depth of time series (1986 to present) WO-STATS-ANNUAL: statistics calculated from each calendar year (1986 to present) WO-STATS-NOV-MAR: statistics calculated yearly from November to March (1986 to present) WO-STATS-APR-OCT: statistics calculated yearly from April to October (1986 to present)

  • With the average annual cost of floods estimated at $377 million, floods are Australia's most expensive natural hazard. As a result, considerable expenditure is made by government and industry to define flood areas in an effort to reduce the impacts of floods. This work typically involves the creation of reports describing the methodology used, data sources and results of hydrological and hydraulic modelling and damage assessments. While numerous reports are developed each year, there was no centralised record of what studies had been undertaken in Australia at a state/territory or national level until the development of the Australian Flood Studies Database in 2004. In 2009 Geoscience Australia reviewed the Australian Floods Studies Database via an online questionnaire. Opinion of the database was sought in three key areas including database functionality and content, and updating the database. The respondents confirmed the usefulness of the existing database content including hydrology and hydraulic scenarios, historical flood events used in the calibration, terrain and floor level surveys, damage assessments, inundation and hazard scenarios, information on what has occurred since a study's completion and related studies. Recurring themes highlighted by the survey respondents include the ability to be able to access the flood study reports and GIS flood layers via the database and be able to input data. Over 170 people completed the survey; 90% of whom were from local government. While only 20% of respondents had used the database, 72% of all respondents to the survey indicated that they would use the database in the future, whether or not they had used the database in the past. Three main recommendations can be concluded from the survey responses. The first recommendation is that the Australian Flood Studies Database is updated and that the lead agency for floodplain management in each State/Territory be responsible for that update on at least an annual basis. The second recommendation is that the database's existing functionality and content is maintained and further enhanced. The final recommendation is that the database is further publicised.

  • Natural hazards have an impact on every Australian State and Territory. These hazards include bushfires, cyclones, earthquakes, floods, landslides, severe weather, tsunami and volcanoes. These phenomena threaten lives and damage private and public assets, as well as disrupt water, power, transport and communication services. These hazards and their associated impacts also can seriously affect employment, public administration and incomes to industry, agriculture and commerce.

  • 11-5519 Metropolitan Manilla (Philippines). Philippine GIS data-sets should arrive from the source on the 15th of July, 2011. GAV will process the data, and produce a short movie. The movie will reveal the 17 town halls of the greater metro Manilla; and outline the fault line, as well as earthquake affected areas, flood affected areas and cyclone affected areas. This movie is for the Philippine Govt. via Ausaide, and will include photographs of Philippine nationals assisting in disaster reduction work. The aquired data-sets will be stored on the GA data store, where access can be gained through communication with Luke Peel - GEMD National Geographic Information Section, Geoscience australia.