The Deep Australian Water Resource Information System (DAWRIS) and the petroleum

Abstract

The total sustainable yield of groundwater in Australia is not known even though many regions of Australia rely on groundwater for urban and rural water supply. Knowledge of deep groundwater resources is particularly poor, with little known about reservoirs below about 100 metres depth. The resource industries often discover and produce large volumes of groundwater that is subsequently evaporated, reinjected, cleaned and discharged into the ocean or streams, or supplied to urban and rural users. In addition, geothermal power and carbon capture and storage projects are also reliant on understanding groundwater processes at depth. Despite this need, Australia as a nation does not have an information system that provides data and interpretation on all groundwater reservoirs from the basement to the surface.

The Deep Australian Water Resource Information System (DAWRIS) is designed to integrate existing groundwater knowledge with previously under-utilised datasets (such as basin analysis, petroleum wells, seismic sections and geophysics) to place deep groundwater within existing government water frameworks. In addition, DAWRIS will also use technologies developed and applied within the petroleum industry to assess groundwater resources.

The challenge for DAWRIS is to build a consistent tectonostratigraphic framework (geofabric) in which to place observations on reservoir properties, groundwater sustainability and water quality. The geofabric will then act as a basis in which to predict these properties away from control points.

The petroleum industry will be able to use DAWRIS to predict the volume and quality of groundwater co-production, plan remediation and reuse strategies, and to help shape Australia’s water agenda.