Links

1. NHMP3 Jira Priority Lists (includes Qld.)  https://wiki.ewater.org.au/display/SC/Current+Priorities+for+issues+critical+to+NHMP+implementation
2. NHMP3 TSG Agendas/Papers https://wiki.ewater.org.au/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=233904329
3. All Jira Issues. https://jira.ewater.org.au/issues/?jql=project%20%3D%20RM
4. Published Practise Notes https://www.mdba.gov.au/publications/mdba-reports/hydrologic-modelling-practice-notes
5. Unpublished Practise Notes & Research Details  https://wiki.ewater.org.au/display/SC/Practice+Notes

Information is stored on the network at \\lands\\data\dsiti\Hydrology\waswq\eWater&Source\

2018-07-23 - NHMS, NHMP, eWater & Source

The work outlined below was driven by the need for jurisdictions responsible for water planning in the MDB to better align surface water quantity models as part of the MDB Water Planning process and ongoing plan monitoring. It has grown to encompass any jurisdiction in Australia who wanted to be involved.

At the national level The National Hydrological Strategy (NHMS) overarches things (draft attached). It is an aspirational (Craig likes that word) strategy developed by COAG (basically the jurisdictions who own eWater and Source). There are and will in the future be different components to address the strategy. Currently these include:

1. eWater Ltd (structure below). eWater as well as capturing Source development also covers other eWater activities that QH has nothing to do with. This includes their consultancy work, Overseas Aid work under the Australian Water Partnership (AWP) and support of other products in the eWater Toolkit e.g. MUSIC (and urban hydrology package). The other products are listed on their website and were developed in historical CRC (Cooperative Research Centre) programs which we were a party to.
2. Source modelling project (development and maintenance). This financial year MDBA, NSW, Qld, SA, WA and ACT have signed on to the 3^rd round of the National Hydrological Modelling Platform (NHMP MK3) project. The agreement will be reviewed each year to assess what is still needed and the required $ contribution. Source is used in Qld. by QH for our quantity models and for the REEF water quality models. The requirements of both groups are covered under the NHMP project. The project has a steering committee. David Wiskar (NRM) is the Qld. representative with Craig (us) & Craig Walton (NRM) providing support and attending meetings. There is also a Technical Steering Group (TSG) who have input to the development priorities. Chas and I are on this. This is where JIRA comes in. We have a Qld. priority list which contains our reported JIRA issues and any others we deem important to us. eWater prioritise their work by combining information from all the priority lists.
3. In addition to the joint agreement there is a facility to undertake individual agreements with eWater (additional $s) to develop functionality a jurisdiction specifically needs. One currently being planned by QH is to make a functionality change to enable modelling of large data sets for stochastic analysis.  It will also improve run times for large models.
4. Hydrological Modelling Practise Notes. These are being developed by MDBA, QLD, NSW, VIC, SA, ACT and CSIRO. Cia, Chas and I have been involved. The aim has been to try and get some consistency between jurisdictions on the concepts associated with developing and apply surface water quantity hydrological models. QH approaches have been part of the discussions and our methods are consistent with what has come out of the project. The final notes are being put on the MDBA website. They are freely available. One aim for the future is to encourage others (consultants, universities etc.) to look at them and maybe incorporating some of the concepts into their own work. There are still more to come but the practise notes finalised to date can be found at https://www.mdba.gov.au/publications/mdba-reports/hydrologic-modelling-practice-notes 
5. MDBA Source Murray Model Technical Working Group.  As part of the redevelopment of the MDB model the Authority set up a TWG that have had been taken along on the model development journey with the chance to comment on methods and data they were using and more recently information and assumptions in the Water Planning Model. This has been important in getting the new model accepted by the other jurisdictions with water plans/models that feed into and out of it.

There has been a lot of work getting to where we are (the main journey started in 2008) but I think:

• All jurisdictions are getting closer to the point where ‘Source’ meets their needs,
• Models and methodology are much better aligned, and  
• Each jurisdiction now has a much better understanding of the way everyone does things and the issues and needs of others.

Lastly linking back to the MDB water plan and our contribution. As part of the MDB water planning process, upgraded models are required for each river system in the basin by 2019. Qld. Gen 2 models were needed for the Paroo, Warrego, Moonie, Nebine, Border and Condamine-Balonne. IQQM was used for the Paroo and Warrego in the period before Source was deemed stable enough to use. The other models are on Source. The Paroo, Warrego, Moonie and Nebine are in use for water planning now and the Border and Condamine simulations for water planning are currently being built. So, we are on track to meet our MDB Water Planning timelines.

EWater structure

National Hydrological Modelling Platform Project (NHMP MK3)

National Hydrological Modelling Strategy - 2018