The Murray-Darling Basin is a complex system involving myriad environmental, social, economic and cultural elements that all interact and intertwine. In executing its functions, the Murray Darling Basin Authority (the MDBA) and its partners must consume and manage many different information items and datasets across many different domains.

Taking into light the aforementioned complexity and myriad of information sources, the MDBA’s Data Services Section (Data Services) has done some very preliminary explorations into graph concepts and technologies and believe they warrant further investigation.

Data Services is seeking to engage a Graph Analytics Specialist to assist in further exploring this technology and its applications for the MDBA’s functions.

The envisioned engagement scope and activities will include:

• Assisting the MDBA in identifying the types of business questions that lend themselves to answering through graph-based technologies and analytics.
• Assisting the MDBA in identifying and preparing the required data to feed into the analysis.
• Engaging and educating various MDBA stakeholders throughout the engagement regarding graph concepts and the application of graph analytics to business scenarios.
• Developing two concurrent prototypes which will assist explorations and learning and demonstrate the value of the technologies:
- Prototype A – Property graph-focused.
- Prototype B – Semantic graph-focused.
• Using these prototypes to run demos and educational sessions with stakeholders as appropriate.
• Producing a brief report at the end of the engagement which will summarise;
- the learnings of the exploration;
- the value to be captured by leveraging graph-based approaches and technologies;
- the most viable areas of the MDBA’s operations for further targeting; and,
- the most appropriate ‘next steps’ and possible initiatives to execute.