Global Drought Monitoring Service through the GEOSS Architecture ...
Global Drought Monitoring Service through the GEOSS Architecture ...
Global Drought Monitoring Service through the GEOSS Architecture ...
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Architectural Implementation Pilot, Phase 3 Version: 2.0<br />
<strong>Global</strong> <strong>Drought</strong> <strong>Monitoring</strong> and European <strong>Drought</strong><br />
Observatory-Water SBA Engineering Report<br />
Date: 11/Feb/2011<br />
2.2.1.6 Hydrologic <strong>Monitoring</strong><br />
Hydrologic drought monitoring measures and forecasts <strong>the</strong> amount of water in lakes, rivers, and<br />
aquifers. 16 <strong>Drought</strong> takes longer to show up in hydrological systems than in agriculture,<br />
especially when reservoirs and rivers are managed to balance <strong>the</strong> extremes of wet and dry years.<br />
Snow is a major component of water supply in <strong>the</strong> western United States.<br />
2.3 Government of Canada <strong>Drought</strong> Coverage<br />
Canada in 2004 extended drought mapping coverage from agricultural areas to remainder<br />
of <strong>the</strong> Canada Provinces. Canada does not carry out drought mapping within <strong>the</strong> territories<br />
(Yukon, Northwest territories, and Nunavut north-of-tree line and permafrost underlain areas).<br />
Near-Real-Time monitoring is carried out for 508 of 761 ground-based stations by Agriculture<br />
and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)(Hadwen2008) which runs a national drought model, in which<br />
Standard Precipitation Index is calculated, soil moisture (as percent of average and difference<br />
from normal), and Palmer <strong>Drought</strong> Severity Index.<br />
2.4 Commonwealth of Australia <strong>Drought</strong> <strong>Monitoring</strong><br />
Water issues are now considered among <strong>the</strong> most important drivers and constraints on natural<br />
resource management in Australia; from environmental hazards like salinity and drought,<br />
<strong>through</strong> to security of urban and rural water supplies. At present, Australia has no<br />
comprehensive, consistent source of information on <strong>the</strong> water balance of its landscapes; that is,<br />
on <strong>the</strong> relationship between rainfall, evaporation, transpiration, soil moisture, runoff and<br />
drainage to ground and surface water. A better understanding of water availability is needed<br />
across <strong>the</strong> entire country and is relevant to <strong>the</strong> implementation of key Australian Government<br />
policies such as Exceptional Circumstances, <strong>the</strong> National Water Initiative, <strong>the</strong> Prime Minister’s<br />
National Plan for Water Security and policies in support of improved natural resource<br />
management.<br />
2.4.1 Commonwealth of Australia Water Availability Project<br />
The Australian Water Availability Project is a partnership established in 2004, between <strong>the</strong><br />
Bureau of Rural Sciences, CSIRO, <strong>the</strong> Bureau of Meteorology and <strong>the</strong> Australian National<br />
University. The project aim is to develop an operational system for estimating soil moisture and<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r components of <strong>the</strong> water balance, at scales ranging from five kilometers (km) to all<br />
Australia, over time-periods ranging from daily to decades. Data from ground-based climate<br />
measurements, remote sensing and models (water, plant and climate) are being combined to<br />
produce maps of historic and current levels of all <strong>the</strong> main components of <strong>the</strong> landscape water<br />
balance, including rainfall, evaporation, transpiration, available soil moisture, runoff, stream<br />
flow and deep drainage. The future challenge is to deliver a fully web operational system,<br />
including underpinning procedures for robust real-time product delivery, continuous<br />
16 http://www.drought.gov/portal/server.pt/community/hydrological_monitoring/224<br />
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