Recent changes in Victorian rainfall and runoff

At the University of Melbourne’s June Seminar (Water Security Series) panelists discussed ‘Recent changes in Victorian rainfall and runoff’, including what new data means for modelling catchment inflows and managing the state’s water resources.

 Some of the key issues raised

  • Low pressure systems bring less winter rain while thunderstorms likely bring heavier summer downfalls.
  • The Millennium Drought from 1997–2009 resulted in lower runoff across the state. About a third of catchments had not recovered after the millennium drought.
  • Instead of recovering, a lot of catchments are showing persistence in this new, steady low runoff state with 80 per cent of unrecovered catchments show no sign of recovering anytime soon

You can read the full event wrap up article or watch the full webinar recording via the Melbourne University School of Engineering website