This product delivers a monthly timeseries of estimated water volume for On-Farm Storages (OFS) across the five valleys of the northern Murray-Darling Basin (Border River, Gwydir, Namoi, Macquarie-Castlereagh, and Barwon-Darling). OFS are critical for agricultural water supply, enabling farmers to store water for irrigation and supporting effective water resource management in the face of water scarcity, regulatory requirements, climate variability, and the need for sustainable agricultural practices.
Estimated OFS water volume is derived through a two-step remote sensing approach. First, water surface area is calculated from multispectral satellite imagery (Landsat and Sentinel-2) using a geospatial model [1][2]. Second, LiDAR-derived storage capacity curves are applied to relate the observed surface area to water height above the Australian Height Datum (AHD), enabling calculation of the estimated water volume for each storage [3].
The dataset is updated monthly using the latest available cloud-free satellite imagery, and historical volume are computed from archived images. The timeseries spans from 1987 to the present, providing a consistent monthly record of estimated OFS water volume across the region.
References
[1] https://datasets.seed.nsw.gov.au/dataset/remote-sensing-earth-observation-water-toolkit.
[2] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01431160600589179
[3] https://hls.gsfc.nasa.gov
Note: If you would like to ask a question, make any suggestions, or tell us how you are using this dataset, please visit the NSW Water Hub which has an online forum you can join.
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