Abstract

Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric (Geofabric)
Track: Water Resources
Authors: Darren Smith, Elizabeth McDonald

The Geofabric is a specialised GIS that registers the spatial relationships between important hydrologic features such as rivers, water bodies and catchments. By detailing the spatial dimensions of these hydrofeatures and how they are connected, we are able to see how water is stored, transported, and used through the landscape.

The enduring nature of the Geofabric is based on a set of nodes (or points) called 'contracted nodes' that represent known features in the landscape such as the confluence of two major rivers. These points have a permanent identifier that will persist through subsequent versions of the Geofabric. They will become the framework of the Geofabric through space and time for relating features and for determining a Catchment Hierarchy that enables the definition of reporting units for different applications.

This paper will focus on the Version 2.0 public release of the Geofabric. The first version can be accessed from http://www.bom.gov.au/water/geofabric/index.shtml.