A grid surface (80m spatial resolution) delineating a Soil Dryness Index (SDI) across the state of Tasmania is produced daily. Soil Dryness is estimated based on the calculation prescribed in Mount (1972) with input data provided from high resolution daily maximum temperature and accumulated rainfall grids. Refer to the following link for details of the latest map updates: https://sdi.tas-hires-weather.cloud.edu.au/shiny/ For operational real-time application, the mapping was fully automated in the R programming language and hosted on a cloud-based computing platform - via the high performance computing cluster provided by the Tasmanian Partnership of Advanced Computing (TPAC) of the University of Tasmania.

The SDI is produced daily with automated production using R programming language in conjunction with the "ebctools" package (Williamson 2016). The inputs for its calculation require daily tmax and rainfall accumulation data. In this instance, these are provided by daily grids produced from real-time monitoring of air temperature and rainfall across Tasmania. Refer to the following links. Air temperature:https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/app/content/data/geo-meta-data-record?detailRecordUID=ca55463d-f416-40e4-821f-92df3931313c Rainfall:https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/app/content/data/geo-meta-data-record?detailRecordUID=a957bb22-70a8-41e0-a994-67303fcfe300 Based on a historical repository of the above grid inputs, SDI is calculated on a cell by cell basis using the SDI function from the ecbtools package. Computation is optimised using parallel processing techniques on a multicore cloud cluster courtesy of the ARDC Nectar Research Cloud. All outputs are displayed within a purpose built web map viewer: https://sdi.tas-hires-weather.cloud.edu.au/shiny/ References: Williamson G (2016). ecbtools: Environmental Change Biology Tools. R package version 0.2. Mount A (1972). The derivation and testing of a soil dryness index using run-off data. Bulletin No. 4, Tasmanian Forestry Commission.