HydroSHEDS (Hydrological data and maps based on SHuttle Elevation Derivatives at multiple Scales) provides hydrographic information in a consistent and comprehensive format for regional and global-scale applications. HydroSHEDS offers a suite of geo-referenced data sets in raster and vector format, including stream networks, watershed boundaries, drainage directions, and ancillary data layers such as flow accumulations, distances, and river topology information. Recently available data derived from HydroSHEDS include comprehensive layers of major basins and smaller sub-basins (~100-2,500 km2) across the globe. These data layers are available to support watershed analyses, hydrological modeling, and freshwater conservation planning at a quality, resolution, and extent that had previously been unachievable in many parts of the world. Data includes Void-Filled elevation, Hydrologically conditioned elevation, drainage directions, flow accumulation, river network, basin outlines, HydroBASINS License information: https://www.hydrosheds.org/page/license

HydroSHEDS is a mapping product that provides hydrographic information for regional and global-scale applications in a consistent format. It offers a suite of geo-referenced datasets (vector and raster) at various scales, including river networks, watershed boundaries, drainage directions, and flow accumulations. HydroSHEDS is based on elevation data obtained in 2000 by NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). This hydrologically conditioned elevation dataset is the result of an iterative conditioning and correction process. Note that the conditioning process alters the original DEM and may render it incorrect for applications other than deriving drainage directions. Endorheic basins (inland sinks) are ''seeded'' with a no-data cell at their lowest point in order to terminate the flow. Full details of the underlying digital elevation model are available in the HydroSHEDS website and documentation. This dataset is at 3 arc-second resolution. The datasets available at 3 arc-seconds are the Void-Filled DEM, Hydrologically Conditioned DEM, and Drainage (Flow) Direction. There are two areas with incorrect negative values of -100 close to Vancouver, Canada around (50.16, -123.85) and Australia (-14.96, 129.62)

HydroSHEDS is a mapping product that provides hydrographic information for regional and global-scale applications in a consistent format. It offers a suite of geo-referenced datasets (vector and raster) at various scales, including river networks, watershed boundaries, drainage directions, and flow accumulations. HydroSHEDS is based on elevation data obtained in 2000 by NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). This dataset provides polylines that represent river networks, derived from and consistent with other HydroSHEDS datasets. These data are based on 15 arc-seconds (approx. 500 m at the equator) resolution raster data. Mapping the world's free-flowing rivers: data set and technical documentation Note that the quality of the HydroSHEDS data is significantly lower for regions above 60 degrees northern latitude as there is no underlying SRTM elevation data available and thus a coarser-resolution DEM was (HYDRO1k provided by USGS). HydroSHEDS was developed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Conservation Science Program in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, The Nature Conservancy, and the Center for Environmental Systems Research of the University of Kassel, Germany.

HydroBASINS is a series of polygon layers that depict watershed boundaries and sub-basin delineations at a global scale. The goal of this product is to provide a seamless global coverage of consistently sized and hierarchically nested sub-basins at different scales (from tens to millions of square kilometers), supported by a coding scheme that allows for analysis of watershed topology such as up- and downstream connectivity.

Using the HydroSHEDS database at 15 arc-second resolution, watersheds were delineated in a consistent manner at different scales, and a hierarchical sub-basin breakdown was created following the topological concept of the Pfafstetter coding system. The resulting polygon layers are termed HydroBASINS and represent a subset of the HydroSHEDS database.

The HydroBASINS product has been developed on behalf of World Wildlife Fund US (WWF), with support and in collaboration with the EU BioFresh project, Berlin, Germany; the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Cambridge, UK; and McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

HydroBASINS is covered by the same License Agreement as the HydroSHEDS database.

Citations and acknowledgements of the HydroBASINS data should be made as follows:

Lehner, B., Grill G. (2013): Global river hydrography and network routing: baseline data and new approaches to study the world’s large river systems. Hydrological Processes, 27(15): 2171–2186. Data is available at www.hydrosheds.org.

HydroSHEDS is a mapping product that provides hydrographic information for regional and global-scale applications in a consistent format. It offers a suite of geo-referenced datasets (vector and raster) at various scales, including river networks, watershed boundaries, drainage directions, and flow accumulations. HydroSHEDS is based on elevation data obtained in 2000 by NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). This dataset provides polygons of nested, hierarchical watersheds, based on 15 arc-seconds (approx. 500 m at the equator) resolution raster data. The watersheds range from level 1 (coarse) to level 12 (detailed), using Pfastetter codes. Technical documentation: https://hydrosheds.org/images/inpages/HydroBASINS_TechDoc_v1c.pdf Note that the quality of the HydroSHEDS data is significantly lower for regions above 60 degrees northern latitude as there is no underlying SRTM elevation data available and thus a coarser-resolution DEM was (HYDRO1k provided by USGS). HydroSHEDS was developed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Conservation Science Program in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, The Nature Conservancy, and the Center for Environmental Systems Research of the University of Kassel, Germany.

HydroSHEDS (Hydrological data and maps based on SHuttle Elevation Derivatives at multiple Scales) provides hydrographic information in a consistent and comprehensive format for regional and global-scale applications. HydroSHEDS offers a suite of geo-referenced data sets (vector and raster), including stream networks, watershed boundaries, drainage directions, and ancillary data layers such as flow accumulations, distances, and river topology information. HydroSHEDS is derived from elevation data of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) at 3 arc-second resolution. Available HydroSHEDS resolutions range from 3 arc-second (approx. 90 meters at the equator) to 5 minute (approx. 10 km at the equator) with seamless near-global extent.

Citation:Title: HydroSHEDS (BAS) - Africa drainage basins (watershed boundaries) at 30s resolutionCredits: World Wildlife Fund (WWF)Publication Date: 2006Publisher: U.S. Geological SurveyOnline Linkages: http://hydrosheds.cr.usgs.govhttp://www.worldwildlife.org/hydroshedsOther Citation Info: Please cite HydroSHEDS as: Lehner, B., Verdin, K., Jarvis, A. (2006): HydroSHEDS Technical Documentation. World Wildlife Fund US, Washington, DC. Available at http://hydrosheds.cr.usgs.gov.

This layer package was loaded using Data Basin.Click here to go to the detail page for this layer package in Data Basin, where you can find out more information, such as full metadata, or use it to create a live web map.

Hydro-basins provide hydrographic data layers that allow for the derivation of watershed boundaries for any given location based on the near-global, high-resolution SRTM digital elevation model. Watersheds were delineated in a consistent manner at different scales, and a hierarchical sub-basin breakdown was created following the topological concept of the Pfafstetter coding system (Verdin & Verdin 1999). The resulting polygon layers are termed HydroBASINS and represent a subset of the HydroSHEDS database. There are 12 levels. Level 6 represents major river systems from headwaters to coast. This version is sourced from FAO.

HydroSHEDS (Hydrological data and maps based on SHuttle Elevation Derivatives at multiple Scales) provides hydrographic information in a consistent and comprehensive format for regional and global-scale applications. HydroSHEDS offers a suite of geo-referenced data sets in raster and vector format, including stream networks, watershed boundaries, drainage directions, and ancillary data layers such as flow accumulations, distances, and river topology information. The goal of developing HydroSHEDS was to generate key data layers to support regional and global watershed analyses, hydrological modeling, and freshwater conservation planning at a quality, resolution and extent that has previously been unachievable. Available resolutions range from 3 arc-second (approx. 90 meters at the equator) to 5 minute (approx. 10 km at the equator) with seamless near-global extent. HydroSHEDS has been developed by the Conservation Science Program of World Wildlife Fund (WWF), in partnership or collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS); the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT); The Nature Conservancy (TNC); McGill University, Montreal, Canada; the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia; and the Center for Environmental Systems Research (CESR), University of Kassel, Germany. Major funding for this project was provided to WWF by JohnsonDiversey, Inc. and Sealed Air Corporation. HydroSHEDS data are free for non-commercial and commercial use. See License Agreement for specific restrictions and use requirements. This product [insert Licensee Derivative Product name] incorporates data from the HydroSHEDS database which is © World Wildlife Fund, Inc. (2006-2013) and has been used herein under license. WWF has not evaluated the data as altered and incorporated within [insert Licensee Derivative Product name], and therefore gives no warranty regarding its accuracy, completeness, currency or suitability for any particular purpose. Portions of the HydroSHEDS database incorporate data which are the intellectual property rights of © USGS (2006-2008), NASA (2000-2005), ESRI (1992-1998), CIAT (2004-2006), UNEP-WCMC (1993), WWF (2004), Commonwealth of Australia (2007), and Her Royal Majesty and the British Crown and are used under license. The HydroSHEDS database and more information are available at http://www.hydrosheds.org.

HydroSHEDS is a mapping product that provides hydrographic information for regional and global-scale applications in a consistent format. It offers a suite of geo-referenced datasets (vector and raster) at various scales, including river networks, watershed boundaries, drainage directions, and flow accumulations. HydroSHEDS is based on elevation data obtained in 2000 by NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). This drainage direction dataset defines the direction of flow from each cell in the conditioned DEM to its steepest down-slope neighbor. Values of drainage direction vary from 1 to 128. All final outlet cells to the ocean are flagged with a value of 0. All cells that mark the lowest point of an endorheic basin (inland sink) are flagged with a value of -1. The drainage direction values follow the convention adopted by ESRI's flow direction implementation: 1=E, 2=SE, 4=S, 8=SW, 16=W, 32=NW, 64=N, 128=NE. This dataset is at 30 arc-second resolution. The datasets available at 30 arc-seconds are the Hydrologically Conditioned DEM, Drainage (Flow) Direction, and Flow Accumulation. Note that the quality of the HydroSHEDS data is significantly lower for regions above 60 degrees northern latitude as there is no underlying SRTM elevation data available and thus a coarser-resolution DEM was (HYDRO1k provided by USGS). HydroSHEDS was developed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Conservation Science Program in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, The Nature Conservancy, and the Center for Environmental Systems Research of the University of Kassel, Germany.

https://www.hydrosheds.org/products/hydrolakesHydroLAKES aims to provide the shoreline polygons of all global lakes with a surface area of at least 10 ha. HydroLAKES has been developed using a suite of auxiliary data sources of lake polygons and gridded lake surface areas. All lakes are co-registered to the global river network of the HydroSHEDS database via their lake pour points. The global coverage of HydroLAKES encompasses 1.4 million individual lakes or reservoirs representing a total surface area of 2.67 million km², a total shoreline length of 7.2 million km, and a total storage volume of 181,900 km³. HydroLAKES only includes a limited amount of (mostly geometric) attribute information, such as surface area, shoreline length, and estimates of average depth, water volume and residence time. Every lake is also co-registered to a river reach of the HydroRIVERS dataset and a sub-basin of the HydroBASINS database (via shared IDs).‍Note that the overarching HydroATLAS database fully contains all lakes of HydroLAKES, which have additionally been enhanced in HydroATLAS with a large number of hydro-environmental characteristics.

A hydrologically correct DEM is designed to calculate secondary surfaces such as flow direction and flow accumulation.DEM resolution: 3 arc-secondElevation in meters (referenced to WGS84 EGM96 geoid)Source: https://www.hydrosheds.org/products/hydrosheds

This dataset divides the North American continent in major hydrological basins and their sub-basins according to its hydrological characteristics. It was obtained by delineating drainage basin boundaries from hydrologically corrected elevation data (WWF HydroSHEDS and Hydro1K).

The dataset consists of the following information:- numerical code and name of the major basin (MAJ_BAS and MAJ_NAME); - area of the major basin in square km (MAJ_AREA); - numerical code and name of the sub-basin (SUB_BAS and SUB_NAME); - area of the sub-basin in square km (SUB_AREA); - numerical code of the sub-basin towards which the sub-basin flows (TO_SUBBAS) (the codes -888 and -999 have been assigned respectively to internal sub-basins and to sub-basins draining into the sea)

Supplemental Information:

This dataset is developed as part of a GIS-based information system on water resources for the Asian continent. It has been published in the framework of the AQUASTAT - programme of the Land and Water Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Contact points:

Metadata contact: AQUASTAT FAO-UN Land and Water Division

Contact: Jippe Hoogeveen FAO-UN Land and Water Division

Data lineage:

The majority of the linework of the map was obtained by delineating drainage basin boundaries from hydrologically corrected elevation data with a resolution of 15 arc-seconds. The elevation dataset was part of a mapping product, HydroSHEDS, developed by the Conservation Science Program of World Wildlife Fund. Original input data had been obtained during NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Areas north of the SRTM extent, 60 degrees N, were obtained by merging with the HYDRO1k basin layer.

Online resources:

Download - Hydrological basins in North America (ESRI shapefile)

General information regarding the HydroSHEDS data product

HydroSHEDS dataset download and technical information

Rivers of North America

The major rivers of the world are derived from the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) HydroSHEDS drainage direction layer and a stream network layer. The drainage direction layer was created from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) 15-second Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The raster stream network was determined by using the HydroSHEDS flow accumulation grid, with a threshold of about 1000 sqkm upstream area. The stream network dataset consists of the following information: the origin node of each arc in the network (FROM_NODE), the destination of each arc in the network (TO_NODE), the Strahler stream order of each arc in the network (STRAHLER), numerical code and name of the major basin that the arc falls within (MAJ_BAS and MAJ_NAME); - area of the major basin in square km that the arc falls within (MAJ_AREA); - numerical code and name of the sub-basin that the arc falls within (SUB_BAS and SUB_NAME); - area of the sub-basin in square km that the arc falls within (SUB_AREA); - numerical code of the sub-basin towards which the sub-basin flows that the arc falls within (TO_SUBBAS) (the codes -888 and -999 have been assigned respectively to internal sub-basins and to sub-basins draining into the sea). The attributes table now includes a field named "Regime" with tentative classification of perennial ("P") and intermittent ("I") streams.

Summarization of the University of Massachusetts Landscape Ecology Lab Designing Sustainable Landscapes (DSL) datasets with the Spatial Hydro-Ecological Decision System (SHEDS) framework. These DSL data were summarized using the local and upstream total accumulation methods within SHEDS. The result are two sets of data, a continuous dataset and a discrete dataset. The continuous dataset contains the average value for the local SHEDS catchments and the area-weighted sums of the averages for the local and all upstream SHEDS catchments for all continuous variables in the DSL dataset. The discrete dataset contains the area in square meters covered by each class within all discrete variables in the DSL dataset for the local SHEDS catchments along with the area-weighted sum of the local and all upstream SHEDS catchment values.

The World Hydro Basemap service is designed to be used as a base map by scientists, professionals, and researchers in the fields of Hydrology, Geography, Climate, Soils, and other natural sciences. The map features a hydro-centric design based on the amount of water flowing within the drainage network such that symbols of the same size and color represent roughly the same amount of water. This map shows surface water flow as a linear phenomenon even over and through bodies of water. Using the best available data we show relative flow accurately, so that if one river carries more water downstream than another river, the result will be that the river will have a thicker symbol on the map. This map is a mashup of the World Hydro Reference overlay, and the World Terrain base, which allows you to sandwich in content such as thematic services like soil units, vegetation, or ecoregions. This basemap provides a frame of reference for showing regional, national, and continental hydrologic phenomena such as drought, runoff, river level monitoring and flood forecasting.River names are collected in the UTF8 character set, so river names are collected in their original language, but are written in the Roman alphabet. Sources for all river names are from the open source geonames.org project so they are international by nature.The map is compiled from several sources. The global scales (very small scales through 1:2,300,000) include content from: HydroSHEDS, GTOPO30 Global Topographic Data, SRTM, GLWD, WorldClim, GRDC, and WWF Global 200 Terrestrial Eco Regions, with the latter three providing the inputs and basis for calculating flow. At medium scales (1:36,000 to 1:2,000,000) this service currently contains only U.S. data from the NHDPlusV2 that was jointly produced by the USGS and EPA. This work is licensed under the Web Services and API Terms of Use. View Summary | View Terms of Use HydroSHEDSThis product, the World Hydro Basemap, incorporates data from the HydroSHEDS database which is © World Wildlife Fund, Inc. (2006-2012) and has been used herein under license. WWF has not evaluated the data as altered and incorporated within the World Hydro Basemap, and therefore gives no warranty regarding its accuracy, completeness, currency or suitability for any particular purpose. Portions of the HydroSHEDS database incorporate data which are the intellectual property rights of © USGS (2006-2008) (data available from U.S. Geological Survey, EROS Data Center, SD), NASA (2000-2005), ESRI (1992-1998), CIAT (2004-2006), UNEP-WCMC (1993), WWF (2004), Commonwealth of Australia (2007), and Her Royal Majesty and the British Crown and are used under license. The scientific citation for the HydroSHEDS database is: Lehner, B., Verdin, K., Jarvis, A. (2008): New global hydrography derived from spaceborne elevation data. Eos, Transactions, AGU, 89(10): 93-94.

The National Hydro Network (NHN) focuses on providing a quality geometric description and a set of basic attributes describing Canada's inland surface waters. It provides geospatial digital data compliant with the NHN Standard such as lakes, reservoirs, watercourses (rivers and streams), canals, islands, drainage linear network, toponyms or geographical names, constructions and obstacles related to surface waters, etc. The best available federal and provincial data are used for its production, which is done jointly by the federal and interested provincial and territorial partners. The NHN is created from existing data at the 1:50 000 scale or better. The NHN data have a great potential for analysis, cartographic representation and display and will serve as base data in many applications. The NHN Work Unit Limits were created based on Water Survey of Canada Sub-Sub-Drainage Area.

Summarization of US Geological Survey 2019 National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2016, and 2019 Land Cover datasets with the Spatial Hydro-Ecological Decision System (SHEDS) framework. These NLCD data were summarized using the local and upstream total accumulation methods within SHEDS for SHEDS Region 2. The output includes both square meter output and percent coverage output.

The World Hydro Reference Overlay Map service is designed to be used as a base map by scientists, professionals, and researchers in the fields of Hydrology, Geography, Climate, Soils, and other natural sciences. The map features a hydro-centric design based on the amount of water flowing within the drainage network such that symbols of the same size and color represent roughly the same amount of water. This map shows surface water flow as a linear phenomenon even over and through bodies of water. Using the best available data we show relative flow accurately, so that if one river carries more water downstream than another river, the result will be that the river will have a thicker symbol on the map.This map is used as an overlay for content such as elevation from the World Terrain Base service or thematic services such as soil units, vegetation, or ecoregions. Combined with a basemap and your map services, this map provides a frame of reference for showing regional, national, and continental hydrologic phenomena such as drought, runoff, river level monitoring and flood forecasting.River names are collected in the UTF8 character set, so river names are collected in their original language, but are written in the Roman alphabet. Sources for all river names are from the open source geonames.org project so they are international by nature.The map is compiled from several sources. The global scales (very small scales through 1:2,300,000) include content from: HydroSHEDS, GTOPO30 Global Topographic Data, SRTM, GLWD, WorldClim, GRDC, and WWF Global 200 Terrestrial Eco Regions, with the latter three providing the inputs and basis for calculating flow. At medium scales (1:36,000 to 1:2,000,000) this service currently contains only U.S. data and that was derived from the NHDPlus program that was jointly produced by the USGS, EPA, and Horizon Systems. This work is licensed under the Web Services and API Terms of Use. View Summary | View Terms of Use HydroSHEDSThis product, the World Hydro Reference Overlay, incorporates data from the HydroSHEDS database which is © World Wildlife Fund, Inc. (2006-2012) and has been used herein under license. WWF has not evaluated the data as altered and incorporated within the World Hydro Reference Overlay, and therefore gives no warranty regarding its accuracy, completeness, currency or suitability for any particular purpose. Portions of the HydroSHEDS database incorporate data which are the intellectual property rights of © USGS (2006-2008) (data available from U.S. Geological Survey, EROS Data Center, SD), NASA (2000-2005), ESRI (1992-1998), CIAT (2004-2006), UNEP-WCMC (1993), WWF (2004), Commonwealth of Australia (2007), and Her Royal Majesty and the British Crown and are used under license. The scientific citation for the HydroSHEDS database is: Lehner, B., Verdin, K., Jarvis, A. (2008): New global hydrography derived from spaceborne elevation data. Eos, Transactions, AGU, 89(10): 93-94.

This dataset divides the South American continent in major hydrological basins and their sub-basins according to its hydrological characteristics. It was obtained by delineating drainage basin boundaries from hydrologically corrected elevation data (WWF HydroSHEDS and Hydro1K).

The dataset consists of the following information:- numerical code and name of the major basin (MAJ_BAS and MAJ_NAME); - area of the major basin in square km (MAJ_AREA); - numerical code and name of the sub-basin (SUB_BAS and SUB_NAME); - area of the sub-basin in square km (SUB_AREA); - numerical code of the sub-basin towards which the sub-basin flows (TO_SUBBAS) (the codes -888 and -999 have been assigned respectively to internal sub-basins and to sub-basins draining into the sea)

Supplemental Information:

This dataset is developed as part of a GIS-based information system on water resources for the South American continent. It has been published in the framework of the AQUASTAT - programme of the Land and Water Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Contact points:

Metadata contact: AQUASTAT FAO-UN Land and Water Division

Contact: Jippe Hoogeveen FAO-UN Land and Water Division

Data lineage:

The linework of the map was obtained by delineating drainage basin boundaries from hydrologically corrected elevation data with a resolution of 15 arc-seconds.The elevation dataset was part of a mapping product, HydroSHEDS, developed by the Conservation Science Program of World Wildlife Fund.Original input data had been obtained during NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM).

Online resources:

Download - Hydrological basins in South America (ESRI shapefile)

General information regarding the HydroSHEDS data product

HydroSHEDS dataset download and technical information

Rivers of South America

Summarization of US Geological Survey National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2016 Land Cover datasets with the Spatial Hydro-Ecological Decision System (SHEDS) framework. These NLCD data were summarized using the local and upstream total accumulation methods within SHEDS.