DOI: 10.25911/5c3d42ca6e4a8
title: Woodland Restoration Plot Network: Climatic Drought Index Data, Western Sydney Parklands (Western Sydney Regional Park), Australia, 1887-2014
title: Woodland Restoration Plot Network: Climatic Drought Index Data, 1887–2014

description: The Woodland Restoration Plot Network Drought data package contains Hutchinson’s Drought Indices calculated for the Prospect Reservoir, a location in close proximity of the Woodland Restoration Plot Network plots. 

The Hutchinson climatic drought indices were invented by Professor Michael Hutchinson at the Australian National University in 1992. Professor Hutchinson designed two indices to reflect the duration and the severity of agricultural droughts using precipitation data. Professor Hutchinson subsequently collaborated with Mr Ivan Hanigan at LTERN to extend the drought indices with new methods, and a computer program was written to compute the indices using a range of climatic data sources.  

The Woodland Restoration Plot Network Drought data package was created from three different data sources: 
1) the Bureau of Meteorology Station data 1887-2014,
2) the Australian Water Availability Project’s gridded climate data 1900-2014 and
3) the TERN EMAST gridded climate data 1970-2012.  T

The project conducted a comparative analysis of the different climatic data sources, which differ in terms of their temporal extent and spatial resolution.  

A synopsis of related data packages which have been collected as part of the Woodland Restoration Plot Network’s full program is provided at https://doi.org/10.25911/5c36e5688ff89.
description: Abstract: The Woodland Restoration Plot Network Drought data package contains Hutchinson’s Drought Indices calculated for the Prospect Reservoir, a location in close proximity of the Woodland Restoration Plot Network plots. 

The Hutchinson climatic drought indices were invented by Professor Michael Hutchinson at the Australian National University in 1992. Professor Hutchinson designed two indices to reflect the duration and the severity of agricultural droughts using precipitation data. Professor Hutchinson subsequently collaborated with Mr Ivan Hanigan at LTERN to extend the drought indices with new methods, and a computer program was written to compute the indices using a range of climatic data sources.   

The Woodland Restoration Plot Network Drought data package was created from three different data sources: 
1) the Bureau of Meteorology Station data 1887-2014, 
2) the Australian Water Availability Project’s gridded climate data 1900-2014 and 
3) the TERN EMAST gridded climate data 1970-2012.  

The project conducted a comparative analysis of the different climatic data sources, which differ in terms of their temporal extent and spatial resolution.  

A synopsis of related data packages which have been collected as part of the Woodland Restoration Plot Network’s full program is provided at https://doi.org/10.25911/5c36e5688ff89

&gt;Project funding: Financial support for development of the Drought Index R package was provided by Professor Tony McMichael's "Australia Fellowship" from the National Health and Medical Research Council, via the  National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University. LTERN funded the implementation of this method on the Woodland Restoration Plot Network site locations in 2015.

Between 2012 and 2018 this project was part of, and funded through the Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTERN) a facility within the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) and supported by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy.