A specialised GIS system has been developed to map the interaction of Australia’s water resources.

The Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric, or Geofabric, will help identify the spatial relationships between important hydrological features such as rivers, lakes, reservoirs, dams, canals and catchments.

By detailing the spatial dimensions of these hydro-features and how they are connected, users will eventually be able to see how water is stored, transported and used through Australia’s landscape.

The idea is to be able to produce a number of different products at different spatial and temporal resolutions and using different representations of features, all from a single database.

The Geofabric project is a collaborative venture between the Bureau of Meteorology, Geoscience Australia, the Australian National University, and CSIRO Land and Water.

The project will develop a database of sets of points that represent known features in the landscape, such as the confluence of two major rivers.

These points are assigned a permanent identifier that will exist through subsequent versions of the Geofabric and will become the framework of the Geofabric through space and time.

Geofabric will evolve in phases over 10 years. The first version comprises mainly surface water hydrology networks, including flow-directed water course lines, water bodies, springs, cliffs and canals.

Subsequent versions will be updated to include groundwater data , hydrometric monitoring point data and finer scales of surface water hydrology.

More information is available on the Bureau of Meteorology web site.