In the lead up to World Water Day on the 22nd of March, Bureau of Meteorology (the Bureau) staff that manage data collected and used in the Bureau’s water information products and services, participated in an educational Hydrographic field trip. The field trip was hosted by Mic Clayton from Snowy Hydro. Mic is a very experienced senior hydrographer who has a wealth of knowledge and experience in collecting and measuring water data. He is also past member of the Secretariat of the Water Monitoring Standardisation Technical Committee (WaMSTeC) and a key contributor to the National Industry Guidelines for hydrometric monitoring.
In the field with Doppler boat gauging equipment
In the afternoon the team went back to the Snowy Hydro office and were shown how the data is uploaded to the data management system and quality checked using the latest software and techniques. The gauging was plotted onto the rating curve that is used to convert the river height to river flow. Finally the team looked at the flow data as received and published on the Bureau’s Water Data Online website.
Reviewing data back in the Snowy Hydro offices
Overall it was a great day and everyone appreciated Mic’s expertise and knowledge and his willingness to teach; it was clear that he has a passion for sharing so others can learn and water industry as a whole can benefit.
Todd Lovell
Bureau of Meteorology