Near-global 1-km freshwater variables

This resource offers near-global, spatially continuous, and freshwater-specific environmental variables in a standardized 1km grid. It delineates sub-catchments along the HydroSHEDS river network and summarizes upstream environmental factors such as climate, topography, land cover, surface geology, and soil. Various metrics, including average, minimum, maximum, range, sum, and inverse distance-weighted calculations, are applied to generate these variables.

All variables are subsequently averaged across single lakes and reservoirs from the Global Lakes and Wetlands Database that are connected to the river network. Monthly climate variables are summarized into 19 long-term climatic variables following the "bioclim" framework. For custom study areas and spatial grains, "r.stream.watersheds" and "r.stream.variables" add-ons are provided for the GRASS GIS software.

The dataset comprises 324 layers, each provided in netCDF-4 format with a cell size of 30 arc-seconds (~1km at the Equator) in the WGS84 coordinate system. The extent covers 60°N to 5°S latitude and 145°W to 180°E longitude, with each file containing one variable stacked as single bands. Associated journal articles provide further information and context for this comprehensive dataset.