Please note: some terms are specific to the Water Measurement Information System (WMIS), whilst others are generic definitions. Where a definition includes a monitoring parameter with the unit of measurement listed, this unit is the one used within WMIS, and other units of measurement may exist.
A
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An Aboriginal Victorian is a person of Aboriginal descent who identifies as an Aboriginal and is accepted as such by the Victorian Aboriginal community in which he or she lives.
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A family of acoustic based instrumentation used for continuous in-situ measurement of water velocities.
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An active site is a site that is currently collecting some data in WMIS. Conversely an inactive site is a site that has collected some data in WMIS in the past but is not currently collecting new data.
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The abbreviation for Australian Height Datum
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The quantitative capacity of aqueous media to react with hydroxyl ions. The equivalent sum of the bases that are titratable with strong acid. Alkalinity is a capacity factor that represents the acid-neutralising capacity of an aqueous system.
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An aquifer is made up of layers of rocks, sand or gravel that have spaces between them where groundwater can be stored. When it rains, some of the water seeps into the ground and trickles down through the soil and rocks. Eventually, it reaches the aquifer, where it stays stored in the tiny spaces between the materials.
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An underground layer of clay, silt or rock with low permeability which restricts the movement of groundwater between aquifers.
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A hydraulic structure (e.g. weir, flume, or gate) installed in an open channel where in most cases the discharge can be derived from the measured upstream water level.
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The datum that sets mean sea level as zero elevation. Mean sea level was determined from observations recorded by 30 tide gauges around the coast of the Australian continent for the period 1966–1968.
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The Australian Water Resources Council (AWRC) was a council set up by the federal and state governments in 1960s. The AWRC is no longer in existence, but its responsibilities at the time were to provide a national focus for the Australian water industry, and to provide a peak forum for consultation, cooperation, and liaison for the development of water industry policy at the international and Australian/state/territory government levels. The objectives of the council were to enhance the long-term management of the water industry and water resources for the benefit of the community and to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the water industry and the services it provided.
The AWRC established the ‘National Gauging Station Number system’ (NGSN system) to facilitate the orderly publication of gauging data. This system is still in use today. Surface water sites within WMIS are grouped by basins and are numbered using the NGSN system.
B
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The water level, or stage, at which a stream, river or lake is at the top of its banks and any further rise would result in water moving into the flood plain.
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The component of streamflow supplied by groundwater discharge.
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The area of land into which a river and its tributaries drain. In the Victorian Water Accounts, river basins are consistent with those defined by the AWRC. The exception is the Murray basin which, for the purposes of this report, includes the Upper Murray basin as defined by AWRC and areas in Victoria supplied from the Murray River downstream of Lake Hume. See also ‘river basin’.
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A hole drilled in the ground, a well or any other excavation used to access groundwater. May be used for observation of groundwater (including water level, pressure, or quality).
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The construction component that lines a bore and provides the conduit from the water-producing zone to the surface.
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A table with rock or sediment types classified into hydrogeologic units along a borehole.
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The construction component of a bore that allows groundwater to enter e.g. casing with slots or holes.
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Boundaries are map overlays which include borders for determining and selecting data based on different physical areas of interest. Boundaries included within WMIS are:
- Catchment Management Authorities
- Environmental Reference Standard waters segment
- groundwater management areas
- groundwater management basins
- local government areas
- MDB water resource plan – groundwater
- MDB water resource plan – surface water
- Melbourne waterway and asset drainage
- Regional Water Corporations
- Registered Aboriginal Parties
- River Basins (AWRC) of Victoria
- Rural Water Corporations
- salinity provinces
- water supply catchments
- water supply protection areas
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The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) is Australia’s national weather, climate, and water agency. The BOM operates under both the Meteorology Act 1955 and the Water Act 2007.
C
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An area where water falling as rain is collected by the landscape, eventually flowing to a body of water such as a creek, river, dam, lake, ocean, or into a groundwater system.
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The Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994 established 10 catchment and land protection regions, each with a catchment management authority responsible for the integrated planning and coordination of land, water, and biodiversity management.
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A scale of temperature on which water freezes at 0 degrees and boils at 100 degrees under standard conditions.
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The level or physical location at which a stream stops flowing. The lowest point in the low flow control.
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An artificial or constructed waterway designed to convey water. Often described as open channels to distinguish them from pipes, channels can be categorised as: main (or major) channels whose primary purpose is to convey bulk water from headworks storage or river diversion points into the distribution system; or distribution channels whose primary purpose is to deliver water from main channels to individual farms. The term canal may sometimes be used for main channels that are used for other purposes than just conveyance of bulk water, such as recreation or transport.
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The quantifiable amount of a substance in water, biota, soil or sediment.
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Continuous water monitoring measures various parameters of water at regular intervals. Monitoring sites are equipped with sensors that detect the measurements. This information is collected in data loggers, which are often connected to telemetry. Telemetry allows users to access this information in real-time or near-real-time.
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Physical properties of a cross-section or a reach of an open channel, either natural or artificial, that govern the relation between stage and discharge at a location in the open channel.
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Aboriginal culture revolves around relationships to the land and water. For Traditional Owners, Country is a part of who they are, just as they are a part of it.
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The section of a stream is the section normal to the mean direction of flow bounded by the free surface and wetted perimeter of the stream.
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The abbreviation for comma separated values. A computer text file where numbers are written as characters separated by commas.
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Resulting from successive additions at different times or in different ways
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Instrument for measuring water velocity.
D
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A barrier to obstruct the flow of water, especially one of earth, masonry, etc., built across a stream.
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The date on which the published measurement was observed.
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A point, plane, or surface to which systems of measurement are referred or related to one another.
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In a water storage, the volume of water stored below the level of the lowest outlet (the minimum supply level). This water cannot be accessed under normal operating conditions.
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The vertical distance below the free surface of a stream to a point of reference, e.g. a measuring instrument, or the bottom of the stream at any point on a cross-section.
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The minimum concentration of a substance that can be measured and reported with 99% confidence that the analyte concentration is greater than zero in water or sediment, using a specific analytical method.
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Volume of liquid flowing through a cross-section in a unit time.
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Water used in households and for pets, other animals, fire prevention, and for irrigating a kitchen garden.
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Representation of the catchments of major surface water drainage systems, generally comprising a number of river basins. In Australia, 12 drainage division boundaries were first defined in the 1960s by the Australian Water Resources Council. Australian drainage division boundaries were revised by the Bureau of Meteorology in 2010 in line with the creation of the Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric (Geofabric) based on the 9 second Digital Elevation Model.
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A long period of abnormally low rainfall, especially one that adversely affects agriculture and other human activities. See the Climate Glossary for more information.
E
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In relation to water, the capacity of the water to transmit a flow of electricity and is a common measure of the salinity of the water.
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Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) is Victoria’s environmental regulator.
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Environmental data is a category of overlay in WMIS that includes various environmental features, which can be selected to aid data selection or understanding. Environmental Data overlays include:
- depth to watertable
- water table salinity
- land use
- rivers
- surface elevation
- water bodies
- water table elevation
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Environmental flow is the streamflow required to maintain appropriate environmental conditions in a waterway.
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The timing, frequency, duration and magnitude of flows for the environment.
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The Environmental Reference Standards (ERS) is part of the Environment Protection Act 2017 and commenced on 1 July 2021. ERS defines outcomes Victorians want for human health and the environment. The ERS supersede the State Environment Protection Policy (Waters of Victoria) in 2021. Environmental Protection Authority Victoria regulates the ERS.
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Water to support environmental values and ecological processes.
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A body established to hold and manage environmental entitlements.
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Something which only lasts for a short time. Typically used to describe rivers, lakes and wetlands that are intermittently dry.
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The zone where a river meets the sea, influenced by river flows and tides and characterised by a gradient from fresh to salt water.
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Ex situ means outside, offsite, or away from the natural location. Ex situ monitoring is monitoring that is sent to an external laboratory for analysis.
F
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A structure that facilitates fish passage past a barrier.
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Low-lying land adjacent to a river or stream with unique ecosystems dependent on overflow from flood events.
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An advice of the potential occurrence of flooding inferred from forecast meteorological considerations and an assessment of catchment wetness. The issuing of a flood watch is meant to indicate that vigilance to potential flooding is required of the community.
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The flow of water in streams, rivers, and other channels.
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Small and short peaks in flows; a ‘flush’ of water through a waterway, which occurs generally in the summer and spring months.
G
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The water level, typically measured at a water monitoring site.
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Physical measurement of instantaneous streamflow to develop the stage-discharge relationship.
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One billion (1,000,000,000) litres.
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All subsurface water, generally occupying the pores and crevices of rock and soil.
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A Groundwater Management Area (GMA) is an area where groundwater has been intensively developed or has the potential to be. GMAs have boundaries defined for the purposes of setting a permissible consumptive volume (PCV) for ongoing management.
H
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Graphical representation of river or stream discharge or of water-level fluctuations in a well.
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The branch of science especially concerned with the movement and quality of water in relation to land.
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The abbreviation for hectopascal, a unit of pressure.
I
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A site that has collected some data in WMIS in the past but is not currently collecting new data.
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In situ means situated in the original place. In situ monitoring is monitoring that is measured whilst at the monitoring site.
L
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A table with drillers' or geologists' description of rock or sediment types along a borehole.
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Describes situations where intense rainfall is expected to cause high run-off volumes in small catchments or localised areas with minimal impact on main streams.
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Flows that provide a continuous flow over the bottom of the channel, but do not fill the channel to any great depth. The term is most often used in relation to baseflows that occur over the drier periods of the year that are sustained for some period (weeks to months), due to short bursts of rain.
M
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The abbreviation for metre(s).
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The abbreviation for millimetres(s).
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The abbreviation for elevation in metres with respect to the Australian Height Datum.
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The abbreviation for square metres.
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In addition to the effects of moderate flooding, extensive rural areas and/or urban areas are inundated. Many buildings may be affected above the floor level. Properties and towns are likely to be isolated and major rail and traffic routes closed. Evacuation of flood affected areas may be required. Utility services may be impacted.
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A place where a particular parameter is measured within a site. Typically, this is where a sensor is located or where the observation is made.
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The middle number of a given sequence of numbers. When the sequence contains an even amount of numbers, the median is the mean of the two middle values.
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One million (1,000,000) litres.
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The abbreviation of milligrams per litre.
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The most severe drought in Victoria’s recorded history, spanning from 1997 to 2009.
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Causes inconvenience. Low-lying areas next to watercourses are inundated. Minor roads may be closed, and low-level bridges submerged. In urban areas inundation may affect some backyards and buildings below the floor level as well as bicycle and pedestrian paths. In rural areas removal of stock and equipment may be required.
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Megalitre. one million litres
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The abbreviation for megalitres per day. A unit of measure for instantaneous discharge (rate unit).
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In addition to minor flooding effects, the area of inundation is more substantial. Main traffic routes may be affected. Some buildings may be affected above the floor level. Evacuation of flood affected areas may be required. In rural areas removal of stock is required.
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A place where observations of the environment are made; typically, a physical location where sensors are used to measure the properties of one or more features of the environment (e.g. depth of a river and temperature of the atmosphere).
N
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The National Gauging Station Number system (NGSN system) is a system created to facilitate the orderly publication of gauging data. It is based on the Australian Drainage Divisions and the drainage basins within those divisions. The NGSN system was established by the Australian Water Resources Council (AWRC). Under this system each site within Australia is assigned a unique six-digit number. The first of the six numbers represents the drainage division, the next two the drainage basin, and the last three the site. In Victoria, there are only two drainage divisions namely the Murray-Darling Division and the South-East Coast Division. All sites north of the divide have site numbers that start with a 4 and all sites south of the divide have site numbers that start with a 2.
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A bore with more than one casing or pipe or a group of nearby bores, open at different levels in aquifers/aquitards, used to evaluate the vertical variation in groundwater pressure head or chemistry.
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The abbreviation for Nephelometric Turbidity unit.
O
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Flows that spill over the channel onto the floodplain.
P
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A measurable or quantifiable characteristic.
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Flows that a water corporation must allow to pass at a dam or weir before it can take any water for consumptive use.
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Platinum colour units.
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The highest river height (in metres) observed during a flood event at the specified site on the river.
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The volume of water in storage as a percentage of the accessible storage capacity. Note that the percentage full may exceed 100% due to floods for example.
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One of a series of threshold values that divides a set of ordered data into 100 groups with an equal number of data points in each. For example, consider a dataset of annual rainfall totals arranged in increasing order. The 20th percentile is a value with 20% of the data below it and 80% above it. The 90th percentile is a value with 90% of the data below it and 10% above it.
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A family of handheld acoustic based instrumentation used to measure water velocities and water depths during a discrete discharge measurement (gauging).
Q
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The implementation of procedures to maximise the integrity of monitoring data (e.g. cleaning procedures, contamination avoidance, sample preservation methods).
R
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A relationship between variables. Usually referring to a stage-discharge relationship which is the Curve, equation or table that expresses the relation between the stage and the discharge in an open channel at a given cross-section, for a given condition of steady, rising or falling stage.
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Any table showing the relation between two mutually dependent quantities or variables over a given range of magnitude, e.g., a table showing the relationship between the stage in a reservoir and its volume.
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A point from which a water level measurement is recorded.
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The Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 (the Act) recognises Registered Aboriginal Parties (RAP) "as the primary guardians, keepers and knowledge holders of Aboriginal cultural heritage". There are 11 RAPs covering approximately 75% of Victoria. RAP boundaries have been determined by Aboriginal communities and registered by the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council (VAHC). RAPs are the primary source of advice and knowledge on matters relating to Aboriginal places or Aboriginal objects in their regions.
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A river containing structures (such as dams or major diversion weirs) which control the flow of water in the river for licensed diverters or users in an irrigation district. Reticulation system: The network of pipelines used to deliver water to end users.
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Natural or artificial dam or lake used for the storage and regulation of water.
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Land or vegetation that adjoins a river, creek, estuary, wetland or lake.
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Large stream of water flowing to the sea, a lake, a marsh or another river
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The land into which a river and its tributaries drain.
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Produced as part of the Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric (Geofabric). These regions align with, and are nested within, the revised drainage divisions. Source: Geofabric Product Guide V2.0
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Rural Water Corporations (RWC) provide rural water services, including water supply, drainage, and salinity mitigation services for irrigation and domestic and stock purposes.
S
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Salinity Provinces provide a framework for describing land and water (both surface and groundwater) salinity in Victoria. These are specific geographic areas where the landscape setting and physical processes contributing to salinity are similar, and where salinity management options are also similar. Each Province contains discrete salinity impacted areas where there is a concentration or higher incidence of land and/or water salinisation, which may or may not have been mapped.
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Spot measurement involves collecting water samples at specific locations and times. The locations and timing of sampling is set at predetermined intervals. Spot water monitoring is also known as grab sampling or discrete sampling.
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The relationship between the gauge height and the cross-sectional area of the stream.
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Groundwater in Victoria is mainly monitored through the State Observation Bore Network (SOBN). Data is collected from about 1,400 groundwater bores.
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Use of water for domestic consumption (e.g. drinking, cooking, washing, watering household gardens, filling swimming pools associated with domestic premises) and to water stock on a property. Does not include water used for irrigating crops that will be sold, bartered or used for stock fodder, for washing down machinery sheds, or for intensive livestock operations.
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A pond, lake, or basin, whether natural or artificial, for the storage, regulation and control of water.
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The elevation of the water surface in a water storage at a particular time and date, measured relative to a specified datum, typically the Australian Height Datum (AHD)
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The formation of layers in a water body that show differences in temperature, turbidity, pH, nutrients, salinity, dissolved oxygen or light penetration at various depths.
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A watercourse and its tributaries. It can be permanent or ephemeral.
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The flow of water in streams, rivers and other channels.
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Water on the surface of the planet, including streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands and oceans.
T
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Telemetry is the in situ collection of measurements of other data and their automatic transmission to receiving equipment. This allows for real-time or near real-time data to be utilised.
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Sites within WMIS where the data is or has been sent via or has been sent by in the past.
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Time series data is the continuous measurement of an environmental or control parameter repeated through time. The interval between successive measurements need not be fixed, while the most basic features of time series data are: time (including the date) single-dimensional value (e.g. a continuous water level measurement). Some water quality parameters are captured as continuous time series data. Sensors concurrently record water quality parameters in the data logger along with water level data.
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People who, through membership of a descent group or clan, are responsible for caring for Country. Aboriginal people with knowledge about traditions, observances, customs or beliefs associated with a particular area. A Traditional Owner is authorised to speak for Country and its heritage.
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The colour of water resulting from substances that are totally in solution; not to be mistaken for apparent colour resulting from colloidal or suspended matter
U
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The abbreviation for micrograms per litre.
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The abbreviation for microsiemens per centimetre.
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An aquifer whose upper surface is a watertable that is free to fluctuate in equilibrium with atmospheric pressure. An aquifer in which there are no confining beds between the saturated zone and the surface. There will be a watertable in an unconfined aquifer.
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River systems with no large dams or weirs to regulate flow.
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The total residential, commercial, municipal, industrial and other water supplied by urban water utilities.
V
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The Victorian aquifer framework (VAF) was developed by the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE, now DEECA). VAF provides a consistent approach to defining, naming, and numbering the commonly accepted aquifers, aquitards, and geological layers that make up Victoria’s groundwater systems.
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The Victorian Environmental Water Holder (VEWH) is an independent statutory body established in 2011 under Victoria’s Water Act 1989. VEWH manages environmental water entitlements.
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The Victorian Fisheries Authority (VFA) is an independent statutory body established to effectively manage Victoria’s fisheries resources.
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Victorian State of the Environment (SoE) Reports are released every 5 years. The most recent report was 2023. SoE Reports provide a scientific baseline on the state of Victoria’s environment. The provide an important analysis of the available science and look at the pressures and the emerging challenges. The report includes a section on inland waters.
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Provides water users with essential information about water entitlements, seasonal allocations, trade, and transfers. The water register is the authoritative record of water entitlements, and it facilitates the transactions that underpin Victoria’s water markets.
W
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Organisations charged with supplying water to people in towns, farmers and other water users across Victoria for urban, industrial, and commercial use. They administer the diversion of water from waterways and the extraction of groundwater. The corporation must provide the service of delivering water to the owner or occupier of each serviced property in its irrigation district at the volumes and for the periods determined by the corporation.
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The elevation of the water surface at a particular time and date, measured relative to a specified datum, or in groundwater the measured distance to the water surface at a particular time and date, relative to a reference point.
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Refers to the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological characteristics of water. It is a measure of the condition of water relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species and or to any human need or purpose.
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A hydrological feature in which water is stored. Surface water storages include natural and artificial ponds, lakes, reservoirs and lagoons, also the bodies of water held behind weirs and dams.
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Domestic Water Supply Catchments that are subject to a Land Use Determination or a Land Use Notice, as proclaimed under the Soil Conservation and Land Utilization Act, 1958 in conjunction with the Land Conservation Act, 1970.
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A water supply protection area is an area declared under the Water Act 1989 to protect the groundwater or surface water resources through the development of a statutory management plan.
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The groundwater surface in an unconfined aquifer or confining bed at which the pore pressure is atmospheric. It can be measured by installing shallow wells extending a few metres into the saturated zone and then determining the water level in those wells.
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1 July to 30 June.
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Waterway condition (or waterway health) is an umbrella term for the overall state of key features and processes that underpin functioning waterway ecosystems (such as species and communities, habitat, connectivity, water quality, riparian vegetation, physical form, and ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling and carbon storage).
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Rivers and streams, their associated estuaries and floodplains (including floodplain wetlands) and non-riverine wetlands.
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A barrier across a river designed to alter flow characteristics.
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Wetlands are areas, whether natural, modified or artificial, subject to permanent or temporary inundation, that hold static or very slow-moving water and develop, or have the potential to develop, biota adapted to inundation and the aquatic environment. Wetlands may be fresh or saline.
Other
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The abbreviation for percent or percentage.
Reviewed 11 June 2024