The Murray Darling Basin Water Budget Project (MDB) was approved as a GEWEX CSE in January 2002, and was initially aimed at enhancing the capability of numerical weather prediction models to provide a real-time surface water budget over the Murray-Darling for application by water authorities. The 2005 implementation plan incorporated new involvement from stakeholders and the wider University community, and identified the importance of ACCESS (Australian Community Climate Earth System Simulator), a comprehensive ensemble prediction modeling system for weather and climate system, to the objectives of the MDB.

Along with changes at GEWEX the Water Budget Project has evolved into a Regional Hydroclimate Project. The MDB RHP is an active program of research continuing in various Australian Agencies (ANSTO, BoM, CSIRO and Universities). The research activities have also been supported by the eWater Cooperative Research Centre, which has over 30 participating research and operational water agencies. Along with the influence of ACCESS, especially the land surface scheme that will focus efforts on water–carbon–energy interactions, it is envisaged that considerable enhancement of the research activities as a result of the new role that the national weather agency, the Bureau of Meteorology, has in water resources. The intersection between the objectives and research within the Bureau’s new water division, and the MDB, will become clearer.

Relevant objectives of the MDB project are to:

1. Observe, understand and model the dynamics of the coupled water, energy and carbon cycles of the Murray Darling Basin, a developed, semi-arid zone Basin 
2. Improve predictive tools for water management, including real-time forecasting products for use by water agencies in the Basin 
3. Strengthen interaction between the climate research community and decision-makers, to maintain a practical focus on water and climate issues that impact both the region and the Australian continent 
4. Promote education and international exchange to improve global change science capability and innovation in Australia and worldwide.