MDB Pulse

BOM Water Online x Geofabric

Relative log colour. Each site’s brightness is flow against its own mean.

—stream reaches

—mapped kilometres

—BoM gauges

—observed gauge-days

Scroll or pinch to zoom · drag to pan

Gauge sites Dams Residual anomaly

Scale Colour

dry wet

Gauge focus

Move over a gauge

—ML / day

Rings and nearby major reaches show that gauge’s observed discharge. Ungauged streams stay on the map but do not carry invented flow.

MDB Pulse · observed discharge

About & how this works

Explore daily observations across the Murray–Darling Basin. Colours on the map come from gauges, with no routing, gap filling, or travel-time simulation.

At a glance

Coloured reaches inherit a nearby gauge’s value; they are not local measurements.
Most of the basin remains uncoloured where there is no suitable gauge.
Default colours show flow relative to each gauge’s own mean.
Line width, halos, and crossfades are visual styling.

How this works

Explore the map

Scroll or pinch to zoom, and drag to pan. Use Fit to return to the full basin. Faint state borders and labels provide geographic context. Playback steps through independent daily observations; pause for detail.

Gauges and traces

Each outlined circle is a BoM Water Data Online daily water-course discharge series snapped to the Geofabric Surface Network. Its centre uses the active flow colour; purple means no observation that day.

Click a gauge to pin its trace. The bright line marks today; the stronger fill to the left shows the previous four months, and the paler fill to the right shows the four months after. Height shows that gauge’s flow on a log scale. Click again to remove a trace, or use Clear traces.

Colour and scale

Assigned reaches inherit a gauge’s observed ML/day, not an area-scaled estimate. Hue and thickness rise with flow. Relative compares each day with that gauge’s long-term mean; Absolute uses raw ML/day across the basin. Log keeps low and high flows readable; linear emphasises the upper range. Viridis, Cividis, and Blue / orange are colour-vision-deficiency-safe choices. Missing days stay dark.

Layers and limits

Gauge markers can be hidden without hiding their flow on nearby reaches. Reaches over 75 km from a selected gauge, or with a very different catchment area, receive no flow value. Optional dam markers show major Geofabric storage locations only, with no storage-volume series. Map brightness, width, and playback do not show channel size, water velocity, or travel time.

Residual anomaly

When enabled, this replaces a pinned trace that has gauged upstreams. It subtracts the nearest gauges on each upstream branch, averages the residual over the previous 28 observed overlapping days, and compares it with that residual’s long-term average. Above the centre line is wetter than usual; below is drier. A gauge without gauged upstreams keeps its flow trace. This is not a complete water balance; the same-day difference is not drawn because travel time can make it swing.

Map key

observed discharge gauge with no value today ungauged map only major dam (optional)

More information

Alpha Build — may contain errors or omissions. Important Disclaimer

This site was coded with AI assistance. Quality assurance is ongoing, and feedback, corrections and reports of problems are welcome at Ben.Leighton@csiro.au.

Water data credits

Observed discharge is from BoM Water Data Online. The data owners listed below make their gauge data available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Required attributions follow; Icon Water requires no attribution.

Icon Water Limited — no attribution required.
Queensland Department of Local Government, Water and Volunteers — © State of Queensland (Department of Local Government, Water and Volunteers).
Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action — © State of Victoria (Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action).

BoM Geofabric data is accessed through CSIRO’s Geofabric API. BoM Water Data Online observations are supplied by these data owners.

Important Disclaimer

CSIRO advises that the information contained in this publication comprises general statements based on scientific research. The reader is advised and needs to be aware that such information may be incomplete or unable to be used in any specific situation. No reliance or actions must therefore be made on that information without seeking prior expert professional, scientific and technical advice. To the extent permitted by law, CSIRO (including its employees and consultants) excludes all liability to any person for any consequences, including but not limited to all losses, damages, costs, expenses and any other compensation, arising directly or indirectly from using this publication (in part or in whole) and any information or material contained in it.

WINTER01 JUL 1997

Speed

—gauges reporting

© Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation 2026. To the extent permitted by law, all rights are reserved and no part of this publication covered by copyright may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means except with the written permission of CSIRO. Uses pybomwater. Bureau of Meteorology Geofabric data through CSIRO’s Geofabric API. Water data credits.

opening the basin reading stream reaches