CAMELS-AUS: hydrometeorological time series and landscape attributes for 222 catchments in Australia

Abstract

This paper presents the Australian edition of the Catchment Attributes and Meteorology for Large-sample Studies (CAMELS) series of datasets. CAMELS-AUS (Australia) comprises data for 222 unregulated catchments, combining hydrometeorological time series (streamflow and 18 climatic variables) with 134 attributes related to geology, soil, topography, land cover, anthropogenic influence and hydroclimatology. The CAMELS-AUS catchments have been monitored for decades (more than 85 % have streamflow records longer than 40 years) and are relatively free of large-scale changes, such as significant changes in land use. Rating curve uncertainty estimates are provided for most (75 %) of the catchments, and multiple atmospheric datasets are included, offering insights into forcing uncertainty. This dataset allows users globally to freely access catchment data drawn from Australia's unique hydroclimatology, particularly notable for its large interannual variability. Combined with arid catchment data from the CAMELS datasets for the USA and Chile, CAMELS-AUS constitutes an unprecedented resource for the study of arid-zone hydrology. CAMELS-AUS is freely downloadable from https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.921850 (Fowler et al., 2020a).