This summer, the One Basin CRC is testing new demand forecasting capabilities in its Griffith Hub, itself housed with Murrumbidgee Irrigation.

Researchers working with the hub are building clear and agreed procedures, infrastructure, and relationships to help test new ideas quickly and contribute to the region’s culture of continuous improvement. 

The momentum for this work has grown out of three separate One Basin CRC projects, on demand forecasting, fault detection, and realising multiple benefits from water. 

‘Achieving the best possible outcomes for a healthy country is something that has to be worked on over time rather than having a one-off fix,’ says Dr Joseph Guillaume, One Basin’s Foresight and Decisions Program Lead.

This kind of work can create clear pathways for research to move quickly towards implementation by establishing systems that enable and simplify both collaboration on problems and uptake of solutions.

‘The idea is to build an environment where practical solutions are developed faster because of ready-made licensing and confidentiality arrangements that allow access to real-world data,’ says Dr Guillaume. ‘R&D efforts can use the same data that is used for river ordering, storage management and planning of water use. ‘ 

‘In addition, projects are set up to have clear communication between operations and R&D teams, building knowledge, relationships, and trust. Solutions can then be readily implemented because they are based on a shared understanding and follow well defined and streamlined processes for testing, consultation, and approvals.’  

Consistent with the One Basin CRC’s emphasis on working together, evaluation of operational changes takes a ‘systems’ view, understanding the ripple effects that any change might have and working to continuously improve how operational changes are tested, not just the changes themselves. 

The Griffith Hub leverages high-level automation, telemetry, and computing capabilities in the region to bring ideas and skills to the data rather than sending the data away for analysis. ‘Digital twinning’ of the region brings together data, models, and expert knowledge to gradually improve our ability to represent and manage the system over time.  

This is the core of the One Basin CRC’s vibrant regional hub – a unique opportunity for researchers and industry to work closely together to learn faster and achieve our common vision. 

To learn more, catch up on our recent webinar: Continuous innovation – the future of water delivery data science.