Climate Exchange

[

] 80

ater

The transition from research on seasonal streamflow

forecasting to operations was a combined effort from the

teams in CSIRO and BoM, beginning in early 2009.

The

research team has been keenly involved in stakeholder

engagement, service planning and adapting research

deliverables to meet service development needs. The tech-

nology and knowledge transfer between the research and

service development teams is excellent and based on good

communication, common goals and shared planning.

To understand user needs for seasonal streamflow fore-

casts, BoM’s experience in operating a seasonal climate

prediction service was drawn upon, including creating

the outlooks and delivering and communicating them.

Considerable time and effort was devoted to developing

relationships with key stakeholders from the major water

agencies around the country. BoM already had strong

relationships with many agencies, built over years of

The locations of Picnic Crossing and Dohertys (top) and monthly historical

streamflow boxplots for the Barron River at Picnic Crossing (middle) and the

Goulburn River at Dohertys (bottom), with the monthly observed streamflows for

January-December 2011 shown as pink dots

Source: BoM

Data flow for the seasonal streamflow forecast update