Global hydro-environmental sub-basin and river reach characteristics at high spatial resolution

Simon Linke,Vicente Burchard-Levine,Michele Thieme,Bernhard Lehner,Florence Tan,Joseph Ariwi,Hana Moidu,Günther Grill,Mira Anand,Sally Maxwell,Camille Ouellet Dallaire,Penny Beames

doi:10.1038/s41597-019-0300-6

Simon Linke, Vicente Burchard-Levine + Show 10 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0300-6

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Abstract

The HydroATLAS database provides a standardized compendium of descriptive hydro-environmental information for all watersheds and rivers of the world at high spatial resolution. Version 1.0 of HydroATLAS offers data for 56 variables, partitioned into 281 individual attributes and organized in six categories: hydrology; physiography; climate; land cover & use; soils & geology; and anthropogenic influences. HydroATLAS derives the hydro-environmental characteristics by aggregating and reformatting original data from well-established global digital maps, and by accumulating them along the drainage network from headwaters to ocean outlets. The attributes are linked to hierarchically nested sub-basins at multiple scales, as well as to individual river reaches, both extracted from the global HydroSHEDS database at 15 arc-second (~500 m) resolution. The sub-basin and river reach information is offered in two companion datasets: BasinATLAS and RiverATLAS. The standardized format of HydroATLAS ensures easy applicability while the inherent topological information supports basic network functionality such as identifying up- and downstream connections. HydroATLAS is fully compatible with other products of the overarching HydroSHEDS project enabling versatile hydro-ecological assessments for a broad user community.

Highlights

Freshwater systems are under multiple threats[1] which can be detrimental to their biodiversity and the ecosystem services they provide[2,3,4,5]
Domisch et al.[17] presented a near-global, spatially continuous, and freshwater-specific set of environmental variables for a standardized 1 km river network grid. They derived more than 300 individual attributes of climatic, stream-topographic, land cover, geological, and soil characteristics and applied upstream accumulation techniques to assess the watershed contributions to each river pixel
The spatial sub-basin and river reach geometry used in HydroATLAS is derived from the global HydroSHEDS database[9]

Summary

Background & Summary

Freshwater systems are under multiple threats[1] which can be detrimental to their biodiversity and the ecosystem services they provide[2,3,4,5]. In the Unites States, the National Hydrography Database (NHD; https://nhd.usgs.gov)[12] provides a geospatial surface water framework and has become a highly-valued information resource for water-related applications It incorporates different baseline datasets at varying scales and resolutions both in vector and raster format, and the value added attributes (VAAs) of the enhanced NHDPlus (http://www.horizon-systems.com/NHDPlus/NHDPlusV2_home.php)[13] expand the capabilities for upstream and downstream navigation, analysis, and modeling. Domisch et al.[17] presented a near-global, spatially continuous, and freshwater-specific set of environmental variables for a standardized 1 km river network grid They derived more than 300 individual attributes of climatic, stream-topographic, land cover, geological, and soil characteristics and applied upstream accumulation techniques to assess the watershed contributions to each river pixel. The corresponding spatial relationships, once established, are expected to further amplify the utility and versatility of the HydroATLAS database

Methods

H10 Hydrology

Findings

Code availability