Water

News in brief

Jun 2, 2023

A new mobile phone app provides river level data sourced from WaterNSW for up to 50km in any direction from any NSW location. Photo by Geoff Adams

Time to reflect on water

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s annual water conference, River Reflections, will be held in Narrabri, NSW, on June 14 and 15.

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The two-day forum is a showcase of the communities, industries and ideas in water management and will include an address by MDBA chair Sir Angus Houston.

MDBA chief executive Andrew McConville said River Reflections was an opportunity to collaborate and network about growing a sustainable basin.

Freshwater ecologist Professor N. LeRoy Poff, from the United States, is a keynote speaker.

“He will bring an international perspective to the conversation about freshwater sustainability at the basin scale under the challenge of climate change, comparing his experience of the Colorado Basin and the Murray-Darling Basin,” Mr McConville said.

Limited in-person tickets remain for the conference, but live-streaming is available for most sessions free of charge for those who cannot attend in person.

View the 2023 River Reflections full program, purchase tickets or register for the free live-streaming at: https://www.mdba.gov.au/news-media-events/river-reflections-conference/conference-program-2023

River levels at fingertips

A Charles Sturt University researcher has developed a mobile phone app that provides information about NSW river levels in a 50 kilometre radius from the user.

RiversNearMe is a free, web-based app for phones that provides river level data sourced from WaterNSW for up to 50km in any direction from your NSW location by tapping on a map.

“RiversNearMe is a quick and easy way for anyone to monitor recent river levels and river flow rates for up to 50km in any direction of a desired location within NSW,” developer Darren Yates said.

“Just point your phone web browser to riversnearme.csu.edu.au, click on a map location in NSW and RiversNearMe does the rest.”

Dr Yates said users could view trends over the past seven hours or seven days, as well as record peaks at any station site location, and even store their favourite location so they don’t have to click anything.

“Our data comes in near-real-time from the statewide telemetry stations of WaterNSW, who we thank for making the data available,” he said.

While primarily designed for farmers, the RiversNearMe app is available to anyone who has an interest in rivers — including campers, fishers, canoers and kayakers.