In May 2013, the Water Information Standards Business Forum endorsed 10 National Industry Guidelines for hydrometric monitoring. The endorsement of the guidelines was a significant achievement for the collaborative development of national standards in the water resources sector. The guidelines provide an opportunity for all water resource monitoring organisations to align their hydrometric monitoring activities with nationally consistent practices and implement common quality standards. With increasing adoption rates, the guidelines will in time allow effective benchmarking of hydrometric data across organisational and jurisdictional borders.

This paper presents findings to date from a survey of key water monitoring agencies across Australia, examining the current status of adoption of the 10 guidelines and the pathway to increased levels of implementation.

Survey responses indicate that all organisations share the vision of striving towards nationally consistent hydrometric monitoring standards. A high proportion of the new guidelines have so far been adopted by a majority of key organisations surveyed, and they have indicated willingness to increase levels of implementation into the future. Some organisations have identified barriers to adoption including a lack of resources and cost of training.