A Global Lake/Reservoir Surface Extent Dataset (GLRSED): An integration of HydroLAKES, GRanD and OpenStreetMap

• Main Authors: Bai, Bingxin, Mu, Lixia, Chen, Ge, Tan, Yumin
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: permafrost
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-216; https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2023-216/

Global lake/reservoir surface water extent is the basic input data for many studies. Although there are some datasets at present, there are problems such as incomplete or spatial inconsistency exist among them due to various reasons like different data sources and dynamic change characteristics of the surface water. In this paper, a new Global Lake/Reservoir Surface Extent Dataset (GLRSED) that contains spatial extent and basic attributes (e.g., name, area, lake type and source) of 2.17 million lakes/reservoirs was produced based on HydroLAKES, GRanD and OpenStreetMap. In addition, by overlaying with mountain data, we identified the lakes/reservoirs located in mountain areas. By overlaying with the Global geReferenced Database of Dams (GOODD) and Georeferenced Global Dams and Reserves (GeoDAR) dataset, we partitioned human-managed reservoirs from natural lakes. Lakes/reservoirs on the rivers were identified by overlaying with the SWOT Mission River Database (SWORD). Using the same method, we identified endorheic, glacier-fed and permafrost-fed lakes. Furthermore, the coverage of Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) ground track to each lake/reservoir in GLRSED was calculated to explore the potential of SWOT for monitoring lakes. These datasets could provide basic data for global lake/reservoir monitoring, enabling the study on the impact of human actions and climate changes on lake/reservoir freshwater availability. The GLRSED database is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8121174 (Bai et al., under review, 2023).