The Australian Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has engaged Prosentient Systems to configure the open-source digital repository software, DSpace, for its Water Knowledge Base.

Soon to be available on the web, the Water Knowledge Base repository is a Northern Australia Water Futures Assessment initiative providing an enduring knowledge base to inform development and protection of Australia&s water resources. It aims to ensure development proceeds in an ecologically, culturally and economically sustainable way, providing a platform for digital research information to be safely stored with online access to documents and data.

Benefits of the Repository include:

• Long-term preservation of a variety of digital artifacts in a range of formats including text, images, datasets, etc;
• The ability to share information with a worldwide audience;
• Quick distribution of research results;
• A persistent URL that can be used as part of resource citation.