About eWater
From July 2012, eWater will exit the CRC program as an independent, government owned, not-for-profit organisation providing continuing development, adoption, and support services for all our software, including Source, Australia’s new hydrological modelling platform. eWater’s software is built and maintained by a team of highly experienced water systems engineers, scientists and software developers and is based on the latest scientific and management knowledge. We also provide model training and foster an active modelling community of practice amongst our members and external model users. This includes the provision of best-practice guidelines for integrated water resources modelling for our member organisations.
eWater Source
Source is Australia’s new national hydrological modelling platform, built by the eWater partnership to meet the diversity of climatic, geographic, water policy and
in the face of increasing water demand, climate extremes and growing environmental concerns— lies at the core of the Source water forecasting capability.
Source is built on an open, flexible and fully customisable framework which allows users to build new models quickly, develop plug-in modules, and integrate, rather than replace, existing approaches and models. Well suited to both data-rich and data-poor situations, Source allows organisations to design, optimise and deliver against a range of planning and operational objectives including:
integrated irrigation, •
hydro-electricity, urban, industrial and environmental water use climate change and water security •
water smart cities •
water ownership and trading •
environmental flows •
setting and delivery
strategic infrastructure planning •
flood and drought protection •
systems operations and water •
demand management
ewater.com.au
eWater and its
predecessors have
been working with water
industry and research
partners for more than
two decades under the
Australian Government’s
Cooperative Research
Centres (CRC) Program.
Our applied research,
software development,
modelling application
and capacity-building
activities have forged a
network of 12,000 software
users and water industry
ewater.com.au
Benefits of Source Modelling Community membership
Preferential access to
Source and the Source
Modelling Community
is offered through an
annual organisational
membership.
As well as providing unlimited Source licences for your staff and students, becoming a member of the Source Modelling Community offers access to the latest shared knowledge and expertise in integrated water resources modelling.
Until now, access to that community of practice has been limited to partners in the eWater CRC. From July 2012, all organisations with a need for the latest water modelling tools will have the opportunity to share knowledge and participate in the ongoing activities of the Source Modelling Community.
Membership also opens up a much broader selection of benefits including discounted training through online and face-to-face learning by domain specialists; discounted licensing of eWater’s water sensitive urban design models (music and Urban Developer), extensive networking opportunities, and access to forums and speciality conferences.
Your staff and students will also be able to share expertise and knowledge with industry professionals in Australia and internationally who are actively involved in implementing eWater Source.
Who will benefit from
membership?
Source Modelling Community members are water management, consulting, research, academic and government organisations with an interest in continuing access to eWater’s Source modelling suite, strengthening their own internal water resources modelling capacity, and contributing to model improvement and refinement via our member-based development community.
Membership benefits
unlimited licences for staff and •
students to the Source hydrological modelling platform
unlimited access to the Source •
online community of practice discounts on licences for eWater’s •
commercial release products discounted rates for eWater •
training courses
discounted registration at annual •
Source conference and user workshops
building and sharing plug-ins •
developed by other members online support forums •
participation of your staff and •
students in our member-based open-source software development community (starting 2013)
access to all user guides, technical •
ewater.com.au
About membership
Annual membership
A single annual fee allows all your staff and students to access Source and join the Source Modelling Community. Your subscriptions help offset the costs of maintaining Source and for facilitating and supporting the online community of practice. The membership fee is proportional to organisational size:
$50,000* pa for organisations with annual income of greater than $50 million pa $25,000* pa for organisations with
annual income of $10–50 million pa $10,000* pa for organisations with
annual income of $2–10 million pa, and all universities and government–funded research organisations $ 5,000* pa for organisations with
annual income of less than $2 million pa
Sponsored members
As part of its not-for-profit mission to support ecologically sustainable water management around the world, eWater also offers sponsored (free) annual membership for public-good organisations from developing countries, based on demonstrated need and ability to pay.
Membership enquiries
Enquiries for Source membership applications should be sent to [email protected] A developing country organisation seeking sponsored membership should describe your organisation’s purpose and projects.
Commercial licences
For those organisations with short term modelling needs, or where formal contractual relationships are preferred, standard commercial-terms software licences and full support contracts (monthly and annual) are available for the Source modelling platform. This may suit those who only need our modelling tools for a particular project or one-off task.
Enquires for commercial licences and contracts should be sent to
[email protected], or phone 1300-5-WATER (+61 2 6206 8637 from outside Australia).
In 2013, Source
development will
move to an expanded
member-based open
source platform.
The Source Community of Practice (CoP) provides Source community members with the opportunity to become involved in Source
development, bug-fixing and functional improvement. This includes the chance to learn how to build plug-ins that allow you to connect your existing models to Source or to build new functional components that carry out specific tasks for your organisation.
In summary, the focus of the Source CoP is to:
facilitate an active network of water •
modelling professionals working in the research, management and planning sectors
support ongoing development •
of Source, associated plug-ins and links to other models encourage application and •
integration of eWater Source and supporting Toolkit models and plug-ins
further development and •
implementation of best
practice modelling approaches and techniques
maintain close contact between •
the model users and the software development process.
The practical benefits of the CoP for your organisation are:
online knowledge sharing and •
collaboration that evolves with and responds to member’s needs regular releases and demonstrations •
of new software functionality access to product software •
developers and power users to answer technical and conceptual questions scheduled face-to-face •
training and workshops participation in open source •
development from 2013.
ewater.com.au
Community of practice
eWater application projects have allowed us to share modelling approaches,
ideas and form a ‘community of practitioners’ across Australia.
Dr Chris Carroll, Reef Scientist, Department of Environment and Resource Management, QLD
eWater employs a team of
highly experienced water
systems engineers and
software developers who
provide industry standard
software development and
support. We also have
access to the latest water
policy and management
thinking through our
extensive water industry
member network. These
experienced water
professionals can provide
face-to-face or online
training in the use of
Source and other
eWater models.
Support
eWater is committed to providing professional support for its software. Help desk and user forum support is included with membership or product licences. A Support and Maintenance package is available for a separate annual fee and is the best choice for organisations where an eWater product is a mission critical application.
Our paid Support and Maintenance package provides a number of benefits including:
product support through the •
1300-5-WATER phone line access to future updates and •
upgrades at no additional cost additional support and tips •
documentation, and applications support. •
For support enquiries phone 1300-5-WATER (+61 2 6206 8637 from outside Australia) or email [email protected]
Training
Our community of practice approach is part of our ongoing commitment to capacity building in the application of our products and water management model application generally.
eWater has trained hundreds of industry people over the past decade. Our training courses do more than just teach how to use our products—they are graduated to meet the needs of different levels of users. They start with the basics, providing a holistic education in such topics as best practice in water sensitive urban design, catchment management, the ecology of river systems and the impact of catchment land-use and other human activities. Then there are advanced courses which drill down into the technical aspects of the products, their use and application. We offer both online and face-to-face courses and can also tailor courses for organisations that have special requirements. All of our courses are presented by leading industry professionals.
To find out more, including training
eWater Toolkit
The eWater Toolkit provides online access to hydrological, ecological and catchment management utility models and information resources. Through the Toolkit you can join a user forum to engage in product discussions or seek support on your modelling or project questions. You can also make product bug reports or access product documentation. The Toolkit user forums are an important way we gather feedback and input into product development. Visit our website ewater.com.au/toolkit
Quality Assurance
As a major provider of modelling products to the water sector, eWater has a responsibility to provide
modelling capacity created under best Quality Assurance (QA) practices while being robust, reliable and user friendly. These QA practices cover the
spectrum of the software development process. eWater follows an agile development discipline, resulting in high quality software, while maintaining the flexibility required to adapt quickly to changing user needs.
Our QA is underpinned by a comprehensive set of automated testing procedures, including daily tests of individual modules all the way up to tests of complete catchment and river models.
This combination of techniques allows eWater to confidently release regular software updates.
Best Practice Modelling
Guidelines
eWater recognises that QA doesn’t end when the software is delivered to users, and that in some cases the use of the models will be subject to intense scrutiny by stakeholders.
To promote a best practice approach to model application, eWater has developed Best Practice Modelling (BPM) Guidelines that can be applied, not only to eWater’s tools, but to other water management models.
The BPM Guidelines are available for free download from our website ewater.com.au/publications
ewater.com.au
Professional support and training
eWater’s existence has created a community of interest around best practice
modelling and ensured the understanding of common needs, issues and
challenges in the modelling space.
Department of Sustainability and Environment, VIC
