Caretaker Conventions

This dataset consists of daily records of total rainfall (mm) and mean daily streamflow (Megalitres/day) from monitoring stations across the Australian Capital Territory. These data are procured by the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate and Transport Canberra and City Services.
pk – stands for ‘primary key’ – an internal record tracking identifier
QualityCode – numeric code denoting the quality of the data. See http://www.bom.gov.au/water/hrs/qc_doc.shtml for details
DatetimeAEST – time of record. Mean daily streamflow is calculated over a period from midnight (00:00:00) AEST to 23:59:59 AEST, with date and time assigned from the beginning of the period. Total rainfall is calculated over a period of 09:00:00 AEST to 8:59:59 AEST, with day and time assigned from the end of the period.
SiteID – a unique code for each site. Streamflow sites generally start with “410…” while rainfall gauges generally start with “570…”. See “ACT Hydrologic sites” for site details, including latitude:longitude and site name.
Unit – unit of measurement.
Value – a numeric value of the unit of measurement.
Varcode – a unique numeric code for each variable.
VariableName – the name of the variable.
LastObservedTimeAEST – date and time (AEST) when the record was last updated.
DataType – definition of the type of data aggregation method used.
Owner – denotes the agency that owns the data.

Point data is available in the table 'ACT streamflow and rainfall data - point data'

AUSRIVAS (Australian River Assessment System) is a river condition monitoring program that uses the environmental sensitivity of aquatic macroinvertebrates to assess the condition of waterways. AUSRIVAS predicts the macroinvertebrate fauna expected to occur at a site with specific environmental characteristics, in the absence of environmental stress. The fauna observed (O) at a site can then be compared to fauna expected (E), with the deviation between the two providing an indication of biological condition. A site displaying no biological impairment should have an O/E taxa score close to one. The O/E taxa score will decrease as the macroinvertebrate assemblage and richness are adversely affected.
ACT Government maintains 13 AUSRIVAS monitoring locations across the ACT. Sampling is undertaken twice per year (spring and autumn). Site details are provided in another dataset. The O/E taxa score (Score) is provided in this dataset, along with the siteID, Site Name, Season in which the survey was undertaken, and the Year in which the survey was undertaken.

Location details of ACT AUSRIVAS (Australian River Assessment System) monitoring sites.

Point data for ACT streamflow, stream level, water quality and rainfall data for streamflow gauges and rainfall gauges across the ACT. Water quality data is present for two streamflow gauge locations. Daily aggregated data is available in the table 'ACT streamflow and rainfall data - daily data'. Spatial information can be found in the dataset 'ACT Hydrological Sites'

This table is the site location meta data for the ACT streamflow and rainfall data - daily data, and the ACT streamflow and rainfall data - point data datasets.