Articles | Volume 16, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1209-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1209-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Data description paper
| 
07 Mar 2024
Data description paper |
| 07 Mar 2024
| 07 Mar 2024
Dams in the Mekong: a comprehensive database, spatiotemporal distribution, and hydropower potentials
Wei Jing Ang
Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
National Institute of Education and Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Yadu Pokhrel
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
Dung Duc Tran
National Institute of Education and Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Center of Water Management and Climate Change (WACC), Institute for Environment and Water Resources (IER), Vietnam National University (VNU), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Ho Huu Loc
Earth Systems and Global Change, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
Related authors
No articles found.
Hannes Müller Schmied, Simon Newland Gosling, Marlo Garnsworthy, Laura Müller, Camelia-Eliza Telteu, Atiq Kainan Ahmed, Lauren Seaby Andersen, Julien Boulange, Peter Burek, Jinfeng Chang, He Chen, Lukas Gudmundsson, Manolis Grillakis, Luca Guillaumot, Naota Hanasaki, Aristeidis Koutroulis, Rohini Kumar, Guoyong Leng, Junguo Liu, Xingcai Liu, Inga Menke, Vimal Mishra, Yadu Pokhrel, Oldrich Rakovec, Luis Samaniego, Yusuke Satoh, Harsh Lovekumar Shah, Mikhail Smilovic, Tobias Stacke, Edwin Sutanudjaja, Wim Thiery, Athanasios Tsilimigkras, Yoshihide Wada, Niko Wanders, and Tokuta Yokohata
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 2409–2425, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-2409-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-2409-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Global water models contribute to the evaluation of important natural and societal issues but are – as all models – simplified representation of reality. So, there are many ways to calculate the water fluxes and storages. This paper presents a visualization of 16 global water models using a standardized visualization and the pathway towards this common understanding. Next to academic education purposes, we envisage that these diagrams will help researchers, model developers, and data users.
Robert Reinecke, Annemarie Bäthge, Ricarda Dietrich, Sebastian Gnann, Simon N. Gosling, Danielle Grogan, Andreas Hartmann, Stefan Kollet, Rohini Kumar, Richard Lammers, Sida Liu, Yan Liu, Nils Moosdorf, Bibi Naz, Sara Nazari, Chibuike Orazulike, Yadu Pokhrel, Jacob Schewe, Mikhail Smilovic, Maryna Strokal, Yoshihide Wada, Shan Zuidema, and Inge de Graaf
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1181, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1181, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
Short summary
Short summary
Here we describe a collaborative effort to improve predictions of how climate change will affect groundwater. The ISIMIP groundwater sector combines multiple global groundwater models to capture a range of possible outcomes and reduce uncertainty. Initial comparisons reveal significant differences between models in key metrics like water table depth and recharge rates, highlighting the need for structured model intercomparisons.
Khosro Morovati, Keer Zhang, Lidi Shi, Yadu Pokhrel, Maozhou Wu, Paradis Someth, Sarann Ly, and Fuqiang Tian
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 5133–5147, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5133-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5133-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study examines large daily river flow fluctuations in the dammed Mekong River, developing integrated 3D hydrodynamic and response time models alongside a hydrological model with an embedded reservoir module. This approach allows estimation of travel times between hydrological stations and contributions of subbasins and upstream regions. Findings show a power correlation between upstream discharge and travel time, and significant fluctuations occurred even before dam construction.
Huy Dang and Yadu Pokhrel
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 3347–3365, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3347-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-3347-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
By examining basin-wide simulations of a river regime over 83 years with and without dams, we present evidence that climate variation was a key driver of hydrologic variabilities in the Mekong River basin (MRB) over the long term; however, dams have largely altered the seasonality of the Mekong’s flow regime and annual flooding patterns in major downstream areas in recent years. These findings could help us rethink the planning of future dams and water resource management in the MRB.
Urmin Vegad, Yadu Pokhrel, and Vimal Mishra
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 1107–1126, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1107-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1107-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
A large population is affected by floods, which leave their footprints through human mortality, migration, and damage to agriculture and infrastructure, during almost every summer monsoon season in India. Despite the massive damage of floods, sub-basin level flood risk assessment is still in its infancy and needs to be improved. Using hydrological and hydrodynamic models, we reconstructed sub-basin level observed floods for the 1901–2020 period.
Jiabo Yin, Louise J. Slater, Abdou Khouakhi, Le Yu, Pan Liu, Fupeng Li, Yadu Pokhrel, and Pierre Gentine
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 5597–5615, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5597-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5597-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
This study presents long-term (i.e., 1940–2022) and high-resolution (i.e., 0.25°) monthly time series of TWS anomalies over the global land surface. The reconstruction is achieved by using a set of machine learning models with a large number of predictors, including climatic and hydrological variables, land use/land cover data, and vegetation indicators (e.g., leaf area index). Our proposed GTWS-MLrec performs overall as well as, or is more reliable than, previous TWS datasets.
Jingyu Wang, Xianfeng Wang, Edward Park, and Yun Lin
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-2023-100, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-2023-100, 2023
Manuscript not accepted for further review
Short summary
Short summary
Building upon the findings in a preceding study by the authors (Wang et al., 2023), this brief communication successfully applied the soil moisture-based tornado damage track detection method to the 24–25 March 2023 Mississippi outbreak. This study also found that the notable discrepancies between spotter reports and ground survey assessments at the tornado early stage can be reconciled using the new method.
Enner Alcântara, José A. Marengo, José Mantovani, Luciana R. Londe, Rachel Lau Yu San, Edward Park, Yunung Nina Lin, Jingyu Wang, Tatiana Mendes, Ana Paula Cunha, Luana Pampuch, Marcelo Seluchi, Silvio Simões, Luz Adriana Cuartas, Demerval Goncalves, Klécia Massi, Regina Alvalá, Osvaldo Moraes, Carlos Souza Filho, Rodolfo Mendes, and Carlos Nobre
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 1157–1175, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-1157-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-1157-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
The municipality of Petrópolis (approximately 305 687 inhabitants) is nestled in the mountains 68 km outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. On 15 February 2022, the city of Petrópolis in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, received an unusually high volume of rain within 3 h (258 mm). This resulted in flash floods and subsequent landslides that caused 231 fatalities, the deadliest landslide disaster recorded in Petrópolis. This work shows how the disaster was triggered.
Inne Vanderkelen, Shervan Gharari, Naoki Mizukami, Martyn P. Clark, David M. Lawrence, Sean Swenson, Yadu Pokhrel, Naota Hanasaki, Ann van Griensven, and Wim Thiery
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 4163–4192, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-4163-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-4163-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Human-controlled reservoirs have a large influence on the global water cycle. However, dam operations are rarely represented in Earth system models. We implement and evaluate a widely used reservoir parametrization in a global river-routing model. Using observations of individual reservoirs, the reservoir scheme outperforms the natural lake scheme. However, both schemes show a similar performance due to biases in runoff timing and magnitude when using simulated runoff.
Camelia-Eliza Telteu, Hannes Müller Schmied, Wim Thiery, Guoyong Leng, Peter Burek, Xingcai Liu, Julien Eric Stanislas Boulange, Lauren Seaby Andersen, Manolis Grillakis, Simon Newland Gosling, Yusuke Satoh, Oldrich Rakovec, Tobias Stacke, Jinfeng Chang, Niko Wanders, Harsh Lovekumar Shah, Tim Trautmann, Ganquan Mao, Naota Hanasaki, Aristeidis Koutroulis, Yadu Pokhrel, Luis Samaniego, Yoshihide Wada, Vimal Mishra, Junguo Liu, Petra Döll, Fang Zhao, Anne Gädeke, Sam S. Rabin, and Florian Herz
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 3843–3878, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3843-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3843-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We analyse water storage compartments, water flows, and human water use sectors included in 16 global water models that provide simulations for the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project phase 2b. We develop a standard writing style for the model equations. We conclude that even though hydrologic processes are often based on similar equations, in the end these equations have been adjusted, or the models have used different values for specific parameters or specific variables.
Robert Reinecke, Hannes Müller Schmied, Tim Trautmann, Lauren Seaby Andersen, Peter Burek, Martina Flörke, Simon N. Gosling, Manolis Grillakis, Naota Hanasaki, Aristeidis Koutroulis, Yadu Pokhrel, Wim Thiery, Yoshihide Wada, Satoh Yusuke, and Petra Döll
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 787–810, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-787-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-787-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Billions of people rely on groundwater as an accessible source of drinking water and for irrigation, especially in times of drought. Groundwater recharge is the primary process of regenerating groundwater resources. We find that groundwater recharge will increase in northern Europe by about 19 % and decrease by 10 % in the Amazon with 3 °C global warming. In the Mediterranean, a 2 °C warming has already lead to a reduction in recharge by 38 %. However, these model predictions are uncertain.
Tokuta Yokohata, Tsuguki Kinoshita, Gen Sakurai, Yadu Pokhrel, Akihiko Ito, Masashi Okada, Yusuke Satoh, Etsushi Kato, Tomoko Nitta, Shinichiro Fujimori, Farshid Felfelani, Yoshimitsu Masaki, Toshichika Iizumi, Motoki Nishimori, Naota Hanasaki, Kiyoshi Takahashi, Yoshiki Yamagata, and Seita Emori
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 4713–4747, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-4713-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-4713-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
The most significant feature of MIROC-INTEG-LAND is that the land surface model that describes the processes of the energy and water balances, human water management, and crop growth incorporates a land-use decision-making model based on economic activities. The future simulations indicate that changes in climate have significant impacts on crop yields, land use, and irrigation water demand.
Suyog Chaudhari, Yadu Pokhrel, Emilio Moran, and Gonzalo Miguez-Macho
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 2841–2862, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-2841-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-2841-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Comprehensive characterization of extreme drought events in the Amazon is provided with respect to their cause, type, spatial extent, and impact on different water stores. Basin-averaged trends in water storage indicate that the Amazon is getting wetter; however its southern and southeastern portions are getting drier. Water deficit is found to be 3-fold higher than the total water supplied during some drought years. Water deficit due to low precipitation events is absorbed by the groundwater.
Xingcai Liu, Wenfeng Liu, Hong Yang, Qiuhong Tang, Martina Flörke, Yoshimitsu Masaki, Hannes Müller Schmied, Sebastian Ostberg, Yadu Pokhrel, Yusuke Satoh, and Yoshihide Wada
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 1245–1261, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1245-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-23-1245-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Human activities associated with water resource management have significantly increased in China during the past decades. This assessment helps us understand how streamflow has been affected by climate and human activities in China. Our analyses indicate that the climate impact has dominated streamflow changes in most areas, and human activities (in terms of water withdrawals) have increasingly decreased streamflow in the northern basins of China which are vulnerable to future climate change.
Naota Hanasaki, Sayaka Yoshikawa, Yadu Pokhrel, and Shinjiro Kanae
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 789–817, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-789-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-789-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Six schemes were added to the H08 global hydrological model (GHM) to represent human water abstraction more accurately and ensure that all water fluxes and storage are traceable in each grid cell at a daily interval. The schemes of local reservoirs, aqueduct water transfer, and seawater desalination were incorporated into GHMs for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. H08 has become one of the most detailed GHMs for attributing water sources available to humanity.
Yoshihide Wada, Marc F. P. Bierkens, Ad de Roo, Paul A. Dirmeyer, James S. Famiglietti, Naota Hanasaki, Megan Konar, Junguo Liu, Hannes Müller Schmied, Taikan Oki, Yadu Pokhrel, Murugesu Sivapalan, Tara J. Troy, Albert I. J. M. van Dijk, Tim van Emmerik, Marjolein H. J. Van Huijgevoort, Henny A. J. Van Lanen, Charles J. Vörösmarty, Niko Wanders, and Howard Wheater
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 4169–4193, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-4169-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-4169-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
Rapidly increasing population and human activities have altered terrestrial water fluxes on an unprecedented scale. Awareness of potential water scarcity led to first global water resource assessments; however, few hydrological models considered the interaction between terrestrial water fluxes and human activities. Our contribution highlights the importance of human activities transforming the Earth's water cycle, and how hydrological models can include such influences in an integrated manner.
Related subject area
Domain: ESSD – Land | Subject: Hydrology
A worldwide event-based debris flow barrier dam dataset from 1800 to 2023
CAMELS-DK: hydrometeorological time series and landscape attributes for 3330 Danish catchments with streamflow observations from 304 gauged stations
An in situ daily dataset for benchmarking temporal variability of groundwater recharge
CAMELS-FR dataset: a large-sample hydroclimatic dataset for France to explore hydrological diversity and support model benchmarking
Features of Italian large dams and their upstream catchments
Gridded rainfall erosivity (2014–2022) in mainland China using 1 min precipitation data from densely distributed weather stations
High-resolution hydrometeorological and snow data for the Dischma catchment in Switzerland
CAMELS-IND: hydrometeorological time series and catchment attributes for 228 catchments in Peninsular India
LakeBeD-US: a benchmark dataset for lake water quality time series and vertical profiles
HERA: a high-resolution pan-European hydrological reanalysis (1951–2020)
BCUB – a large-sample ungauged basin attribute dataset for British Columbia, Canada
Comprehensive inventory of large hydropower systems in the Italian Alpine Region
Lena River biogeochemistry captured by a 4.5-year high-frequency sampling program
CAMELS-DE: hydro-meteorological time series and attributes for 1582 catchments in Germany
Observational partitioning of water and CO2 fluxes at National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) sites: a 5-year dataset of soil and plant components for spatial and temporal analysis
An integrated high-resolution bathymetric model for the Danube Delta system
GRILSS: Opening the Gateway to Global Reservoir Sedimentation Data Curation
Benchmark dataset for hydraulic simulations of flash floods in the French Mediterranean region
CIrrMap250: annual maps of China's irrigated cropland from 2000 to 2020 developed through multisource data integration
HANZE v2.1: an improved database of flood impacts in Europe from 1870 to 2020
A Copernicus-based evapotranspiration dataset at 100 m spatial resolution over four Mediterranean basins
Gridded dataset of nitrogen and phosphorus point sources from wastewater in Germany (1950–2019)
A 1985–2023 time series dataset of absolute reservoir storage in Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA-Res)
One year of high frequency monitoring of groundwater physico-chemical parameters in the Weierbach Experimental Catchment, Luxembourg
A globally sampled high-resolution hand-labeled validation dataset for evaluating surface water extent maps
Satellite-based near-real-time global daily terrestrial evapotranspiration estimates
Multivariate characterisation of a blackberry–alder agroforestry system in South Africa: hydrological, pedological, dendrological and meteorological measurements
CAMELS-AUS v2: updated hydrometeorological timeseries and landscape attributes for an enlarged set of catchments in Australia
SHIFT: a spatial-heterogeneity improvement in DEM-based mapping of global geomorphic floodplains
First comprehensive stable isotope dataset of diverse water units in a permafrost-dominated catchment on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau
Mapping the world’s inland surface waters: an update to the Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD v2)
LamaH-Ice: LArge-SaMple DAta for Hydrology and Environmental Sciences for Iceland
High-resolution mapping of monthly industrial water withdrawal in China from 1965 to 2020
Optimal feature selection for improved ML based reconstruction of Global Terrestrial Water Storage Anomalies
Evapotranspiration evaluation using three different protocols on a large green roof in the greater Paris area
Simbi: historical hydro-meteorological time series and signatures for 24 catchments in Haiti
CAMELE: Collocation-Analyzed Multi-source Ensembled Land Evapotranspiration Data
A hydrogeomorphic dataset for characterizing catchment hydrological behavior across the Tibetan Plateau
Discrete Global Grid System-based Flow Routing Datasets in the Amazon and Yukon Basins
Deriving a Transformation Rate Map of Dissolved Organic Carbon over the Contiguous U.S.
A synthesis of Global Streamflow Characteristics, Hydrometeorology, and Catchment Attributes (GSHA) for large sample river-centric studies
FOCA: a new quality-controlled database of floods and catchment descriptors in Italy
A global dataset of the shape of drainage systems
An extensive spatiotemporal water quality dataset covering four decades (1980–2022) in China
Flood simulation with the RiverCure approach: the open dataset of the 2016 Águeda flood event
GloLakes: water storage dynamics for 27 000 lakes globally from 1984 to present derived from satellite altimetry and optical imaging
AltiMaP: altimetry mapping procedure for hydrography data
CAMELS-CH: hydro-meteorological time series and landscape attributes for 331 catchments in hydrologic Switzerland
The use of GRDC gauging stations for calibrating large-scale hydrological models
A long-term dataset of simulated epilimnion and hypolimnion temperatures in 401 French lakes (1959–2020)
Haiguang Cheng, Kaiheng Hu, Shuang Liu, Xiaopeng Zhang, Hao Li, Qiyuan Zhang, Lan Ning, Manish Raj Gouli, Pu Li, Anna Yang, Peng Zhao, Junyu Liu, and Li Wei
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1573–1593, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1573-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1573-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
After reviewing 2519 literature and media reports, we compiled the first comprehensive global dataset of 555 debris flow barrier dams (DFBDs) from 1800 to 2023. Our dataset meticulously documents 38 attributes of DFBDs, and we have utilized Google Earth for validation. Additionally, we discussed the applicability of landslide dam stability and peak-discharge models to DFBDs. This dataset offers a rich foundation of data for future studies on DFBDs.
Jun Liu, Julian Koch, Simon Stisen, Lars Troldborg, Anker Lajer Højberg, Hans Thodsen, Mark F. T. Hansen, and Raphael J. M. Schneider
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1551–1572, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1551-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1551-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We developed a CAMELS-style dataset in Denmark, which contains hydrometeorological time series and landscape attributes for 3330 catchments (304 gauged). Many catchments in CAMELS-DK are small and at low elevations. The dataset provides information on groundwater characteristics and dynamics, as well as quantities related to the human impact on the hydrological system in Denmark. The dataset is especially relevant for developing data-driven and hybrid physically informed modeling frameworks.
Pragnaditya Malakar, Aatish Anshuman, Mukesh Kumar, Georgios Boumis, T. Prabhakar Clement, Arik Tashie, Hitesh Thakur, Nagaraj Bhat, and Lokendra Rathore
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1515–1528, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1515-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1515-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Groundwater dynamics depend on groundwater recharge, but daily benchmark data of recharge are scarce. Here we present a daily groundwater recharge per unit specified yield (RpSy) data at 485 US groundwater monitoring wells. RpSy can be used to validate the temporal consistency of recharge products from land surface and hydrologic models and facilitate assessment of recharge-driver functional relationships in them.
Olivier Delaigue, Guilherme Mendoza Guimarães, Pierre Brigode, Benoît Génot, Charles Perrin, Jean-Michel Soubeyroux, Bruno Janet, Nans Addor, and Vazken Andréassian
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1461–1479, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1461-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1461-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This dataset covers 654 rivers all flowing in France. The provided time series and catchment attributes will be of interest to those modelers wishing to analyze hydrological behavior and perform model assessments.
Giulia Evangelista, Paola Mazzoglio, Daniele Ganora, Francesca Pianigiani, and Pierluigi Claps
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1407–1426, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1407-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1407-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents the first comprehensive dataset of 528 large dams in Italy. It contains structural characteristics of the dams, such as coordinates, reservoir surface areas and volumes, together with a range of geomorphological, climatological, extreme rainfall, land cover and soil-related attributes of their upstream catchments.
Yueli Chen, Yun Xie, Xingwu Duan, and Minghu Ding
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1265–1274, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1265-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1265-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Rainfall erosivity maps are crucial for identifying key areas of water erosion. Due to the limited historical precipitation data, there are certain biases in rainfall erosivity estimates in China. This study develops a new rainfall erosivity map for mainland China using 1 min precipitation data from 60 129 weather stations, revealing that areas exceeding 4000 MJ mm ha−1 h−1yr−1 of annual rainfall erosivity are mainly concentrated in southern China and on the southern Tibetan Plateau.
Jan Magnusson, Yves Bühler, Louis Quéno, Bertrand Cluzet, Giulia Mazzotti, Clare Webster, Rebecca Mott, and Tobias Jonas
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 703–717, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-703-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-703-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
In this study, we present a dataset for the Dischma catchment in eastern Switzerland, which represents a typical high-alpine watershed in the European Alps. Accurate monitoring and reliable forecasting of snow and water resources in such basins are crucial for a wide range of applications. Our dataset is valuable for improving physics-based snow, land surface, and hydrological models, with potential applications in similar high-alpine catchments.
Nikunj K. Mangukiya, Kanneganti Bhargav Kumar, Pankaj Dey, Shailza Sharma, Vijaykumar Bejagam, Pradeep P. Mujumdar, and Ashutosh Sharma
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 461–491, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-461-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-461-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We introduce CAMELS-IND (Catchment Attributes and MEteorology for Large-sample Studies – India), which provides daily hydrometeorological time series and static catchment attributes representing the location, topography, climate, hydrological signatures, land use, land cover, soil, geology, and anthropogenic influences for 472 catchments in Peninsular India to foster large-sample hydrological studies in India and promote the inclusion of Indian catchments in global hydrological research.
Bennett J. McAfee, Aanish Pradhan, Abhilash Neog, Sepideh Fatemi, Robert T. Hensley, Mary E. Lofton, Anuj Karpatne, Cayelan C. Carey, and Paul C. Hanson
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-27, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-27, 2025
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
LakeBeD-US is a dataset of lake water quality data collected by multiple long-term monitoring programs around the United States. This dataset is designed to foster collaboration between lake scientists and computer scientists to improve predictions of water quality. By offering a way for computer models to be tested against real-world lake data, LakeBeD-US offers opportunities for both sciences to grow and to give new insights into the causes of water quality changes.
Aloïs Tilloy, Dominik Paprotny, Stefania Grimaldi, Goncalo Gomes, Alessandra Bianchi, Stefan Lange, Hylke Beck, Cinzia Mazzetti, and Luc Feyen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 293–316, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-293-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-293-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This article presents a reanalysis of Europe's river streamflow for the period 1951–2020. Streamflow is estimated through a state-of-the-art hydrological simulation framework benefitting from detailed information about the landscape, climate, and human activities. The resulting Hydrological European ReAnalysis (HERA) can be a valuable tool for studying hydrological dynamics, including the impacts of climate change and human activities on European water resources and flood and drought risks.
Daniel Kovacek and Steven Weijs
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 259–275, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-259-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-259-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We made a dataset for British Columbia describing the terrain, soil, land cover, and climate of over 1 million watersheds. The attributes are often used in hydrology because they are related to the water cycle. The data are meant to be used for water resources problems that can benefit from lots of watersheds and their attributes. The data and instructions needed to build the dataset from scratch are freely available. The permanent home for the data is https://doi.org/10.5683/SP3/JNKZVT.
Andrea Galletti, Soroush Zarghami Dastjerdi, and Bruno Majone
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-521, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-521, 2025
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
We propose IAR-HP, a detailed inventory of large hydropower systems in Italy's Alpine Region, aimed at improving hydrological modeling for climate impact studies by providing the most relevant information with a consistent level of detail. It includes structural, geographical, and operational data for over 300 hydropower plants and their related reservoirs and water intakes. Validated through modeling, IAR-HP accurately reproduces observed hydropower, capturing 96.2 % of actual production.
Bennet Juhls, Anne Morgenstern, Jens Hölemann, Antje Eulenburg, Birgit Heim, Frederieke Miesner, Hendrik Grotheer, Gesine Mollenhauer, Hanno Meyer, Ephraim Erkens, Felica Yara Gehde, Sofia Antonova, Sergey Chalov, Maria Tereshina, Oxana Erina, Evgeniya Fingert, Ekaterina Abramova, Tina Sanders, Liudmila Lebedeva, Nikolai Torgovkin, Georgii Maksimov, Vasily Povazhnyi, Rafael Gonçalves-Araujo, Urban Wünsch, Antonina Chetverova, Sophie Opfergelt, and Pier Paul Overduin
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1–28, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The Siberian Arctic is warming fast: permafrost is thawing, river chemistry is changing, and coastal ecosystems are affected. We aimed to understand changes in the Lena River, a major Arctic river flowing to the Arctic Ocean, by collecting 4.5 years of detailed water data, including temperature and carbon and nutrient contents. This dataset records current conditions and helps us to detect future changes. Explore it at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.913197 and https://lena-monitoring.awi.de/.
Ralf Loritz, Alexander Dolich, Eduardo Acuña Espinoza, Pia Ebeling, Björn Guse, Jonas Götte, Sibylle K. Hassler, Corina Hauffe, Ingo Heidbüchel, Jens Kiesel, Mirko Mälicke, Hannes Müller-Thomy, Michael Stölzle, and Larisa Tarasova
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 5625–5642, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5625-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5625-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The CAMELS-DE dataset features data from 1582 streamflow gauges across Germany, with records spanning from 1951 to 2020. This comprehensive dataset, which includes time series of up to 70 years (median 46 years), enables advanced research on water flow and environmental trends and supports the development of hydrological models.
Einara Zahn and Elie Bou-Zeid
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 5603–5624, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5603-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5603-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Quantifying water and CO2 exchanges through transpiration, evaporation, net photosynthesis, and soil respiration is essential for understanding how ecosystems function. We implemented five methods to estimate these fluxes over a 5-year period across 47 sites. This is the first dataset representing such large spatial and temporal coverage of soil and plant exchanges, and it has many potential applications, such as examining the response of ecosystems to weather extremes and climate change.
Lauranne Alaerts, Jonathan Lambrechts, Ny Riana Randresihaja, Luc Vandenbulcke, Olivier Gourgue, Emmanuel Hanert, and Marilaure Grégoire
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-529, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-529, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
We created the first comprehensive, high-resolution, and easily-accessible bathymetry dataset for the three main branches of the Danube Delta. By combining four data sources, we obtained a detailed representation of the riverbed, with resolutions ranging from 2 to 100 m. This dataset will support future studies on water and nutrient exchanges between the Danube and the Black Sea, and provide insights into the Delta’s buffer role within the understudied Danube-Black Sea continuum.
Sanchit Minocha and Faisal Hossain
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-470, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-470, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
Trustworthy and independently verifiable information on declining storage capacity or sedimentation rates around the world is sparse and suffers from inconsistent metadata and curation to allow global-scale archiving and analyses. Global Reservoir Inventory of Lost Storage by Sedimentation (GRILSS) dataset addresses this challenge by providing organized, well-curated and open-source data on sedimentation rates and capacity loss for 1,015 reservoirs in 75 major river basins across 54 countries.
Juliette Godet, Pierre Nicolle, Nabil Hocini, Eric Gaume, Philippe Davy, Frederic Pons, Pierre Javelle, Pierre-André Garambois, Dimitri Lague, and Olivier Payrastre
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-472, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-472, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
This paper describes a dataset that includes input, output, and validation data for the simulation of flash flood hazards and three specific flash flood events in the French Mediterranean region. This dataset is particularly valuable as flood mapping methods often lack sufficient benchmark data. Additionally, we demonstrate how the hydraulic method we used, named Floodos, produces highly satisfactory results.
Ling Zhang, Yanhua Xie, Xiufang Zhu, Qimin Ma, and Luca Brocca
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 5207–5226, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5207-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5207-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study presented new annual maps of irrigated cropland in China from 2000 to 2020 (CIrrMap250). These maps were developed by integrating remote sensing data, irrigation statistics and surveys, and an irrigation suitability map. CIrrMap250 achieved high accuracy and outperformed currently available products. The new irrigation maps revealed a clear expansion of China’s irrigation area, with the majority (61%) occurring in the water-unsustainable regions facing severe to extreme water stress.
Dominik Paprotny, Paweł Terefenko, and Jakub Śledziowski
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 5145–5170, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5145-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5145-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Knowledge about past natural disasters can help adaptation to their future occurrences. Here, we present a dataset of 2521 riverine, pluvial, coastal, and compound floods that have occurred in 42 European countries between 1870 and 2020. The dataset contains available information on the inundated area, fatalities, persons affected, or economic loss and was obtained by extensive data collection from more than 800 sources ranging from news reports through government databases to scientific papers.
Paulina Bartkowiak, Bartolomeo Ventura, Alexander Jacob, and Mariapina Castelli
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4709–4734, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4709-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4709-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents the Two-Source Energy Balance evapotranspiration (ET) product driven by Copernicus Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 imagery together with ERA5 climate reanalysis data. Daily ET maps are available at 100 m spatial resolution for the period 2017–2021 across four Mediterranean basins: Ebro (Spain), Hérault (France), Medjerda (Tunisia), and Po (Italy). The product is highly beneficial for supporting vegetation monitoring and sustainable water management at the river basin scale.
Fanny J. Sarrazin, Sabine Attinger, and Rohini Kumar
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4673–4708, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4673-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4673-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) contamination of water bodies is a long-term issue due to the long history of N and P inputs to the environment and their persistence. Here, we introduce a long-term and high-resolution dataset of N and P inputs from wastewater (point sources) for Germany, combining data from different sources and conceptual understanding. We also account for uncertainties in modelling choices, thus facilitating robust long-term and large-scale water quality studies.
Shanti Shwarup Mahto, Simone Fatichi, and Stefano Galelli
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-441, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-441, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
The MSEA-Res database offers an open-access dataset tracking absolute water storage for 185 large reservoirs across Mainland Southeast Asia from 1985–2023. It provides valuable insights into how reservoir storage has grown by 130 % between 2008 and 2017, driven by dams in key river basins. Our data also reveal how droughts, like the 2019–2020 event, significantly impacted water reservoirs. This resource can aid water management, drought planning, and research globally.
Karl Nicolaus van Zweel, Laurent Gourdol, Jean François Iffly, Loïc Léonard, François Barnich, Laurent Pfister, Erwin Zehe, and Christophe Hissler
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-259, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-259, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
Our study monitored groundwater in a Luxembourg forest over a year to understand water and chemical changes. We found seasonal variations in water chemistry, influenced by rainfall and soil interactions. This data helps predict environmental responses and manage water resources better. By measuring key parameters like pH and dissolved oxygen, our research provides valuable insights into groundwater behavior and serves as a resource for future environmental studies.
Rohit Mukherjee, Frederick Policelli, Ruixue Wang, Elise Arellano-Thompson, Beth Tellman, Prashanti Sharma, Zhijie Zhang, and Jonathan Giezendanner
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4311–4323, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4311-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4311-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Global water resource monitoring is crucial due to climate change and population growth. This study presents a hand-labeled dataset of 100 PlanetScope images for surface water detection, spanning diverse biomes. We use this dataset to evaluate two state-of-the-art mapping methods. Results highlight performance variations across biomes, emphasizing the need for diverse, independent validation datasets to enhance the accuracy and reliability of satellite-based surface water monitoring techniques.
Lei Huang, Yong Luo, Jing M. Chen, Qiuhong Tang, Tammo Steenhuis, Wei Cheng, and Wen Shi
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 3993–4019, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3993-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3993-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Timely global terrestrial evapotranspiration (ET) data are crucial for water resource management and drought forecasting. This study introduces the VISEA algorithm, which integrates satellite data and shortwave radiation to provide daily 0.05° gridded near-real-time ET estimates. By employing a vegetation index–temperature method, this algorithm can estimate ET without requiring additional data. Evaluation results demonstrate VISEA's comparable accuracy with accelerated data availability.
Sibylle Kathrin Hassler, Rafael Bohn Reckziegel, Ben du Toit, Svenja Hoffmeister, Florian Kestel, Anton Kunneke, Rebekka Maier, and Jonathan Paul Sheppard
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 3935–3948, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3935-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3935-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Agroforestry systems (AFSs) combine trees and crops within the same land unit, providing a sustainable land use option which protects natural resources and biodiversity. Introducing trees into agricultural systems can positively affect water resources, soil characteristics, biomass and microclimate. We studied an AFS in South Africa in a multidisciplinary approach to assess the different influences and present the resulting dataset consisting of water, soil, tree and meteorological variables.
Keirnan J. A. Fowler, Ziqi Zhang, and Xue Hou
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-263, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-263, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents Version 2 of the Australian edition of the Catchment Attributes and Meteorology for Large-sample Studies (CAMELS) series of datasets. CAMELS-AUS v2 comprises data for an increased number (561) of catchments, each with with long-term monitoring, combining hydrometeorological time series with attributes related to geology, soil, topography, land cover, anthropogenic influence and hydroclimatology. It is freely downloadable from https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.12575680.
Kaihao Zheng, Peirong Lin, and Ziyun Yin
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 3873–3891, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3873-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3873-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We develop a globally applicable thresholding scheme for DEM-based floodplain delineation to improve the representation of spatial heterogeneity. It involves a stepwise approach to estimate the basin-level floodplain hydraulic geometry parameters that best respect the scaling law while approximating the global hydrodynamic flood maps. A ~90 m resolution global floodplain map, the Spatial Heterogeneity Improved Floodplain by Terrain analysis (SHIFT), is delineated with demonstrated superiority.
Yuzhong Yang, Qingbai Wu, Xiaoyan Guo, Lu Zhou, Helin Yao, Dandan Zhang, Zhongqiong Zhang, Ji Chen, and Guojun Liu
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 3755–3770, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3755-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-3755-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We present the temporal data of stable isotopes in different waterbodies in the Beiluhe Basin in the hinterland of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) produced between 2017 and 2022. In this article, the first detailed stable isotope data of 359 ground ice samples are presented. This first data set provides a new basis for understanding the hydrological effects of permafrost degradation on the QTP.
Bernhard Lehner, Mira Anand, Etienne Fluet-Chouinard, Florence Tan, Filipe Aires, George H. Allen, Pilippe Bousquet, Josep G. Canadell, Nick Davidson, C. Max Finlayson, Thomas Gumbricht, Lammert Hilarides, Gustaf Hugelius, Robert B. Jackson, Maartje C. Korver, Peter B. McIntyre, Szabolcs Nagy, David Olefeldt, Tamlin M. Pavelsky, Jean-Francois Pekel, Benjamin Poulter, Catherine Prigent, Jida Wang, Thomas A. Worthington, Dai Yamazaki, and Michele Thieme
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-204, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-204, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
The Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD) version 2 distinguishes a total of 33 non-overlapping wetland classes, providing a static map of the world’s inland surface waters. It contains cell fractions of wetland extents per class at a grid cell resolution of ~500 m. The total combined extent of all classes including all inland and coastal waterbodies and wetlands of all inundation frequencies—that is, the maximum extent—covers 18.2 million km2, equivalent to 13.4 % of total global land area.
Hordur Bragi Helgason and Bart Nijssen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 2741–2771, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2741-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2741-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
LamaH-Ice is a large-sample hydrology (LSH) dataset for Iceland. The dataset includes daily and hourly hydro-meteorological time series, including observed streamflow and basin characteristics, for 107 basins. LamaH-Ice offers most variables that are included in existing LSH datasets and additional information relevant to cold-region hydrology such as annual time series of glacier extent and mass balance. A large majority of the basins in LamaH-Ice are unaffected by human activities.
Chengcheng Hou, Yan Li, Shan Sang, Xu Zhao, Yanxu Liu, Yinglu Liu, and Fang Zhao
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 2449–2464, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2449-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2449-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
To fill the gap in the gridded industrial water withdrawal (IWW) data in China, we developed the China Industrial Water Withdrawal (CIWW) dataset, which provides monthly IWWs from 1965 to 2020 at a spatial resolution of 0.1°/0.25° and auxiliary data including subsectoral IWW and industrial output value in 2008. This dataset can help understand the human water use dynamics and support studies in hydrology, geography, sustainability sciences, and water resource management and allocation in China.
Nehar Mandal, Prabal Das, and Kironmala Chanda
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-109, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-109, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
Optimal features among hydroclimatic variables and land surface model (LSM) outputs are selected using a novel Bayesian network (BN) approach for simulating Terrestrial Water Storage Anomalies (TWSA). TWSA is simulated using ML models (CNN, SVR, ETR, and Stacking Ensemble Regression), and gridwise leader models are identified globally. TWSA is reconstructed (BNML_TWSA) with the selected leader models from January 1960 to December 2022 to generate a continuous global gridded dataset.
Pierre-Antoine Versini, Leydy Alejandra Castellanos-Diaz, David Ramier, and Ioulia Tchiguirinskaia
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 2351–2366, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2351-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2351-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Nature-based solutions (NBSs), such as green roofs, have appeared as relevant solutions to mitigate urban heat islands. The evapotranspiration (ET) process allows NBSs to cool the air. To improve our knowledge about ET assessment, this paper presents some experimental measurement campaigns carried out during three consecutive summers. Data are available for three different (large, small, and point-based) spatial scales.
Ralph Bathelemy, Pierre Brigode, Vazken Andréassian, Charles Perrin, Vincent Moron, Cédric Gaucherel, Emmanuel Tric, and Dominique Boisson
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 2073–2098, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2073-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2073-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The aim of this work is to provide the first hydroclimatic database for Haiti, a Caribbean country particularly vulnerable to meteorological and hydrological hazards. The resulting database, named Simbi, provides hydroclimatic time series for around 150 stations and 24 catchment areas.
Changming Li, Ziwei Liu, Wencong Yang, Zhuoyi Tu, Juntai Han, Sien Li, and Hanbo Yang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1811–1846, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1811-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1811-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Using a collocation-based approach, we developed a reliable global land evapotranspiration product (CAMELE) by merging multi-source datasets. The CAMELE product outperformed individual input datasets and showed satisfactory performance compared to reference data. It also demonstrated superiority for different plant functional types. Our study provides a promising solution for data fusion. The CAMELE dataset allows for detailed research and a better understanding of land–atmosphere interactions.
Yuhan Guo, Hongxing Zheng, Yuting Yang, Yanfang Sang, and Congcong Wen
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1651–1665, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1651-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1651-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We have provided an inaugural version of the hydrogeomorphic dataset for catchments over the Tibetan Plateau. We first provide the width-function-based instantaneous unit hydrograph (WFIUH) for each HydroBASINS catchment, which can be used to investigate the spatial heterogeneity of hydrological behavior across the Tibetan Plateau. It is expected to facilitate hydrological modeling across the Tibetan Plateau.
Chang Liao, Darren Engwirda, Matthew Cooper, Mingke Li, and Yilin Fang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-398, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-398, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
Discrete Global Grid systems, or DGGs, are digital frameworks that help us organize information about our planet. Although scientists have used DGGs in areas like weather and nature, using them in the water cycle has been challenging because some core datasets are missing. We created a way to generate these datasets. We then developed the datasets in the Amazon Basin, which plays an important role in our planet's climate. These datasets may help us improve our water cycle models.
Lingbo Li, Hong-Yi Li, Guta Abeshu, Jinyun Tang, L. Ruby Leung, Chang Liao, Zeli Tan, Hanqin Tian, Peter Thornton, and Xiaojuan Yang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-43, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-43, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
Short summary
Short summary
We have developed a new map that reveals how organic carbon from soil leaches into headwater streams over the contiguous United States. We use advanced artificial intelligence techniques and a massive amount of data, including observations at over 2,500 gauges and a wealth of climate and environmental information. The map is a critical step in understanding and predicting how carbon moves through our environment, hence a useful tool for tackling climate challenges.
Ziyun Yin, Peirong Lin, Ryan Riggs, George H. Allen, Xiangyong Lei, Ziyan Zheng, and Siyu Cai
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1559–1587, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1559-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1559-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Large-sample hydrology (LSH) datasets have been the backbone of hydrological model parameter estimation and data-driven machine learning models for hydrological processes. This study complements existing LSH studies by creating a dataset with improved sample coverage, uncertainty estimates, and dynamic descriptions of human activities, which are all crucial to hydrological understanding and modeling.
Pierluigi Claps, Giulia Evangelista, Daniele Ganora, Paola Mazzoglio, and Irene Monforte
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1503–1522, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1503-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1503-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
FOCA (Italian FlOod and Catchment Atlas) is the first systematic collection of data on Italian river catchments. It comprises geomorphological, soil, land cover, NDVI, climatological and extreme rainfall catchment attributes. FOCA also contains 631 peak and daily discharge time series covering the 1911–2016 period. Using this first nationwide data collection, a wide range of applications, in particular flood studies, can be undertaken within the Italian territory.
Chuanqi He, Ci-Jian Yang, Jens M. Turowski, Richard F. Ott, Jean Braun, Hui Tang, Shadi Ghantous, Xiaoping Yuan, and Gaia Stucky de Quay
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1151–1166, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1151-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1151-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The shape of drainage basins and rivers holds significant implications for landscape evolution processes and dynamics. We used a global 90 m resolution topography to obtain ~0.7 million drainage basins with sizes over 50 km2. Our dataset contains the spatial distribution of drainage systems and their morphological parameters, supporting fields such as geomorphology, climatology, biology, ecology, hydrology, and natural hazards.
Jingyu Lin, Peng Wang, Jinzhu Wang, Youping Zhou, Xudong Zhou, Pan Yang, Hao Zhang, Yanpeng Cai, and Zhifeng Yang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 1137–1149, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1137-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-1137-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Our paper provides a repository comprising over 330 000 observations encompassing daily, weekly, and monthly records of surface water quality spanning the period 1980–2022. It included 18 distinct indicators, meticulously gathered at 2384 monitoring sites, ranging from inland locations to coastal and oceanic areas. This dataset will be very useful for researchers and decision-makers in the fields of hydrology, ecological studies, climate change, policy development, and oceanography.
Ana M. Ricardo, Rui M. L. Ferreira, Alberto Rodrigues da Silva, Jacinto Estima, Jorge Marques, Ivo Gamito, and Alexandre Serra
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 375–385, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-375-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-375-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Floods are among the most common natural disasters responsible for severe damages and human losses. Agueda.2016Flood, a synthesis of locally sensed data and numerically produced data, allows complete characterization of the flood event that occurred in February 2016 in the Portuguese Águeda River. The dataset was managed through the RiverCure Portal, a collaborative web platform connected to a validated shallow-water model.
Jiawei Hou, Albert I. J. M. Van Dijk, Luigi J. Renzullo, and Pablo R. Larraondo
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 201–218, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-201-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-201-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The GloLakes dataset provides historical and near-real-time time series of relative (i.e. storage change) and absolute (i.e. total stored volume) storage for more than 27 000 lakes worldwide using multiple sources of satellite data, including laser and radar altimetry and optical remote sensing. These data can help us understand the influence of climate variability and anthropogenic activities on water availability and system ecology over the last 4 decades.
Menaka Revel, Xudong Zhou, Prakat Modi, Jean-François Cretaux, Stephane Calmant, and Dai Yamazaki
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 75–88, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-75-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-75-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
As satellite technology advances, there is an incredible amount of remotely sensed data for observing terrestrial water. Satellite altimetry observations of water heights can be utilized to calibrate and validate large-scale hydrodynamic models. However, because large-scale models are discontinuous, comparing satellite altimetry to predicted water surface elevation is difficult. We developed a satellite altimetry mapping procedure for high-resolution river network data.
Marvin Höge, Martina Kauzlaric, Rosi Siber, Ursula Schönenberger, Pascal Horton, Jan Schwanbeck, Marius Günter Floriancic, Daniel Viviroli, Sibylle Wilhelm, Anna E. Sikorska-Senoner, Nans Addor, Manuela Brunner, Sandra Pool, Massimiliano Zappa, and Fabrizio Fenicia
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 5755–5784, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5755-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5755-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
CAMELS-CH is an open large-sample hydro-meteorological data set that covers 331 catchments in hydrologic Switzerland from 1 January 1981 to 31 December 2020. It comprises (a) daily data of river discharge and water level as well as meteorologic variables like precipitation and temperature; (b) yearly glacier and land cover data; (c) static attributes of, e.g, topography or human impact; and (d) catchment delineations. CAMELS-CH enables water and climate research and modeling at catchment level.
Peter Burek and Mikhail Smilovic
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 5617–5629, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5617-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5617-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We address an annoying problem every grid-based hydrological model must solve to compare simulated and observed river discharge. First, station locations do not fit the high-resolution river network. We update the database with stations based on a new high-resolution network. Second, station locations do not work with a coarser grid-based network. We use a new basin shape similarity concept for station locations on a coarser grid, reducing the error of assigning stations to the wrong basin.
Najwa Sharaf, Jordi Prats, Nathalie Reynaud, Thierry Tormos, Rosalie Bruel, Tiphaine Peroux, and Pierre-Alain Danis
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 5631–5650, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5631-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5631-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We present a regional long-term (1959–2020) dataset (LakeTSim) of daily epilimnion and hypolimnion water temperature simulations in 401 French lakes. Overall, less uncertainty is associated with the epilimnion compared to the hypolimnion. LakeTSim is valuable for providing new insights into lake water temperature for assessing the impact of climate change, which is often hindered by the lack of observations, and for decision-making by stakeholders.
Cited articles
Amornsakchai, S., Annez, P., Vongvisessomjai, S., Choowaew, S., Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), Kunurat, P., Nippanon, J., Schouten, R., Sripapatrprasite, P., Vaddhanaphuti, C., Vidthayanon, C., Wirojanagud, W., and Watana, E.: Pak Mun Dam, Mekong River Basin, Thailand, A WCD Case Study prepared as an input to the World Commission on Dams, Cape Town, https://www.mrcmekong.org/assets/Publications/Council-Study/Amornsakchai-etal-2001-Case-Study-PakMunDam-MRB-Thailand.pdf (last access: 24 September 2023), 2000.
Ang, W. J., Park, E., and Yang, X.: Geomorphic control on stage-area hysteresis in three of the largest floodplain lakes, J. Hydrol., 614, 128574, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.128574, 2022.
Ang, W. J., Park, E., Pokhrel, Y., Tran D. D., and Loc, H. H.: Replication Data for: Dams in the Mekong: A comprehensive database, spatiotemporal distribution, and hydropower potentials, DR-NTU [data set], https://doi.org/10.21979/N9/ACZIJN, 2023.
Baird, I. G.: Local Ecological Knowledge and Small-scale Freshwater Fisheries Management in the Mekong River in Southern Laos, in: Fishers' Knowledge in Fisheries Science and Management, edited by: Haggan, N., Neis, B., and Baird, I. G., UNESCO, 247–266, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228734632_Local_ecological_knowledge_and_small-scale_freshwater_fisheries_management_in_the_Mekong_River_in_Southern_Laos (last access: 1 March 2024) 2007.
Barbarossa, V., Schmitt, R. J. P., Huijbregts, M. A. J., Zarfl, C., King, H., and Schipper, A. M.: Impacts of current and future large dams on the geographic range connectivity of freshwater fish worldwide, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 117, 3648–3655, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1912776117, 2020.
Biba, S.: China's Continuous Dam-building on the Mekong River, J. Contemp. Asia, 42, 603–628, https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2012.712257, 2012.
Binh, D. V., Kantoush, S. A., Saber, M., Mai, N. P., Maskey, S., Phong, D. T., and Sumi, T.: Long-term alterations of flow regimes of the Mekong River and adaptation strategies for the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, J. Hydrol. Reg. Stud., 32, 100742, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrh.2020.100742, 2020.
Chen, H. and Boutros, P. C.: VennDiagram: A package for the generation of highly-customizable Venn and Euler diagrams in R, BMC Bioinformatics, 12, 35, https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2105-12-35, 2011.
CHIRPS: CHIRPS: Rainfall Estimates from Rain Gauge and Satellite Observations, https://www.chc.ucsb.edu/data/chirps (last access: 28 December 2023).
Cho, M. S. and Qi, J.: Quantifying spatiotemporal impacts of hydro-dams on land use/land cover changes in the Lower Mekong River Basin, Appl. Geogr., 136, 102588, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2021.102588, 2021.
Chowdhury, A. F. M. K., Dang, T. D., Bagchi, A., and Galelli, S.: Expected Benefits of Laos' Hydropower Development Curbed by Hydroclimatic Variability and Limited Transmission Capacity: Opportunities to Reform, J. Water Res. Plan. Man., 146, 05020019, https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001279, 2020.
Cochrane, T. A., Arias, M. E., and Piman, T.: Historical impact of water infrastructure on water levels of the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap system, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 18, 4529–4541, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-18-4529-2014, 2014.
Cooley, H., Christian-Smith, J., Gleick, P., Allen, L., and Cohen, M.: Understanding and Reducing the Risks of Climate Change for Transboundary Waters, Pacific Institute, https://pacinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/transboundary_water_and_climate_report3.pdf (last access: 1 March 2024), 2009.
Cronin, R.: Mekong Dams and the Perils of Peace, Survival, 51, 147–160, https://doi.org/10.1080/00396330903461716, 2009.
Cuya, D. G. P., Brandimarte, L., Popescu, I., Alterach, J., and Peviani, M.: A GIS-based assessment of maximum potential hydropower production in La Plata basin under global changes, Renew. Energ., 50, 103–114, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2012.06.019, 2013.
Dang, H., Pokhrel, Y., Shin, S., Stelly, J., Ahlquist, D., and Du Bui, D.: Hydrologic balance and inundation dynamics of Southeast Asia's largest inland lake altered by hydropower dams in the Mekong River basin, Sci. Total Environ., 831, 154833, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.15483, 2022.
Dugan, P. J., Barlow, C., Agostinho, A. A., Baran, E., Cada, G. F., Chen, D., Cowx, I. G., Ferguson, J. W., Jutagate, T., Mallen-Cooper, M., Marmulla, G., Nestler, J., Petrere, M., Welcomme, R. L., and Winemiller, K. O.: Fish Migration, Dams, and Loss of Ecosystem Services in the Mekong Basin, Ambio, 39, 344–348, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-010-0036-1, 2010.
EDL-Generation Public Company: Nam Mang 3 Hydro Power Plant, https://edlgen.com.la/project/nam-mang3-hpp/?lang=en (last access: 19 December 2023).
Energy Market Authority: Singapore commences first renewable energy electricity import via regional multilateral power trade [Press Release], https://www.ema.gov.sg/content/dam/corporate/news/media-releases/2022/20220623_MediaRelease_Singapore-commences-first-renewable-energy-electricity-imports-100MW.pdf.coredownload.pdf (last access: 29 January 2023), 2022.
Ezell, S.: 4 Dams on the Upper Mekong in Yunnan, China: 2011–2019, The Diplomat, https://thediplomat.com/2021/05/4-dams-on-the-upper-mekong-in-yunnan-china-2011-2019/ (last access: 11 October 2023), 2021.
FAO: AQUASTAT – FAO's Global Information System on Water and Agriculture, https://www.fao.org/aquastat/en/databases/dams (last access: 29 January 2023), 2015.
Galelli, S., Dang, T. D., Ng, J. Y., Chowdhury, A. F. M. K., and Arias, M. E.: Opportunities to curb hydrological alterations via dam re-operation in the Mekong, Nat. Sustain., 5, 1058–1069, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00971-z, 2022.
Gao, Y., Sarker, S., Sarker, T., and Leta, O. T.: Analyzing the critical locations in response of constructed and planned dams on the Mekong River Basin for environmental integrity, Environ. Res. Commun., 4, 101001, https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/ac9459, 2022.
Gosling, S. N., Schmied, H. M., Burek, P., Chang, J., Ciais, P., Döll, P., Eisner, S., Fink, G., Flörke, M., Franssen, W., Grillakis, M., Hagemann, S., Hanasaki, N., Koutroulis, A., Leng, G., Liu, X., Masaki, Y., Mathison, C., Mishra, V., Ostberg, S., Portmann, F., Qi, W., Sahu, R., Satoh, Y., Schewe, J., Seneviratne, S., Shah, H. L., Stacke, T., Tao, F., Telteu, C., Thiery, W., Trautmann, T., Tsanis, I., Wanders, N., Zhai, R., Büchner, M., Schewe, J., and Zhao, F.: ISIMIP2b Simulation Data from the Global Water Sector (v1.0), ISIMIP Repository [data set], https://doi.org/10.48364/ISIMIP.626689, 2023.
Grill, G., Ouellet Dallaire, C., Fluet Chouinard, E., Sindorf, N., and Lehner, B.: Development of new indicators to evaluate river fragmentation and flow regulation at large scales: A case study for the Mekong River Basin, Ecol. Indic., 45, 148–159, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2014.03.026, 2014.
Grill, G., Lehner, B., Thieme, M., Geenen, B., Tickner, D., Antonelli, F., Babu, S., Borrelli, P., Cheng, L., Crochetiere, H., Ehalt Macedo, H., Filgueiras, R., Goichot, M., Higgins, J., Hogan, Z., Lip, B., McClain, M. E., Meng, J., Mulligan, M., Nilsson, C., Olden, J. D., Opperman, J. J., Petry, P., Reidy Liermann, C., Sáenz, L., Salinas-Rodríguez, S., Schelle, P., Schmitt, R. J. P., Snider, J., Tan, F., Tockner, K., Valdujo, P. H., van Soesbergen, A., and Zarfl, C.: Mapping the world's free-flowing Rivers, Nature, 569, 215–221, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1111-9, 2019.
Grumbine, R. E., Dore, J., and Xu, J.: Mekong hydropower: Drivers of change and governance challenges, Front. Ecol. Environ., 10, 91–98, https://doi.org/10.1890/110146, 2012.
Grünwald, R., Wang, W., and Feng, Y.: Politicization of the hydropower dams in the Lancang-Mekong Basin: A review of contemporary environmental challenges, Energies, 15, 1682, https://doi.org/10.3390/en15051682, 2022.
Gudmundsson, L., Boulange, J., Do, H. X., Gosling, S. N., Grillakis, M. G., Koutroulis, A. G., Leonard, M., Liu, J., Schmied, H. M., Papadimitriou, L., Pokhrel, Y., Seneviratne, S. I., Satoh, Y., Thiery, W., Westra, S., Zhang, X., and Zhao, F.: Globally observed trends in mean and extreme river flow attributed to climate change, Science, 371, 1159–1162, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba3996, 2021.
Hanna, J. W., Kim, M. S., Ramsey, A. C., Omdal, D. W., Mulvey, R. L., Goodrich, B. A., Ferguson, B. A., Bronson, J. J., Goheen, E. M., Chadwick, K. L., Kearns, H. S. J., Lockman, I. B., LaBarge, A. K. B., Stewart, J. E., Maffei, H. M., Oblinger, B. W., Smith, A. L., Ross-Davis, A. L., Shaw, D. C., LeBoldus, J. M., Bennett, P. I., Alveshere, B. C., Ashiglar, S. M., McDonald, G. I., Pitman, E. W. I., Donley, J. B., Bright, B. C., Warwell, M. V., and Klopfenstein, N. B.: Maximum entropy-based bioclimatic models predict areas of current and future suitable habitat for Armillaria species in western Oregon and western Washington, in: 66th Annual Western International Forest Disease Work Conference, Estes Park, 3–7 June 2019, 161–170, https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/61283 (last access: 2 March 2024), 2019.
Hecht, J. S., Lacombe, G., Arias, M. E., Dang, T. D., and Piman, T.: Hydropower dams of the Mekong River basin: A review of their hydrological impacts, J. Hydrol., 568, 285–300, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.10.045, 2019.
Hempel, S., Frieler, K., Warszawski, L., Schewe, J., and Piontek, F.: A trend-preserving bias correction – the ISI-MIP approach, Earth Syst. Dynam., 4, 219–236, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-4-219-2013, 2013.
Hirsch, P.: The Changing Political Dynamics of Dam Building on the Mekong, Water Altern., 3, 312–323, 2010.
Hirsch, P.: The shifting regional geopolitics of Mekong dams, Polit. Geogr., 51, 63–74, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2015.12.004, 2016.
Hobo Maps: Home Page, https://hobomaps.com/ (last access: 18 July 2023).
HydroSHEDS: Data Products, https://www.hydrosheds.org/products (last access: 30 January 2023).
IPCC: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report, Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, Pachauri, R. K. and Meyer, L. A. (Eds.)], IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151 pp., 2014.
IR: Lancang River Dams: Threatening the Flow of the Lower Mekong, https://archive.internationalrivers.org/sites/default/files/attached-files/ir_lacang_dams_2013_5.pdf (last access: 17 February 2023), 2013.
IR: Spreadsheet of Major Dams in China, https://archive.internationalrivers.org/resources/spreadsheet-of-major-dams-in-china-7743 (last access: 29 January 2023), 2014.
IR: Pak Beng Dam, https://archive.internationalrivers.org/node/10852 (last access: 29 January 2023).
IRENA: Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2021, International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi, https://www.irena.org/publications/2022/Jul/Renewable-Power-Generation-Costs-in-2021 (last access: 27 March 2023), 2022.
Kang, H., Sridhar, V., Mainuddin, M., and Trung, L. D.: Future rice farming threatened by drought in the Lower Mekong Basin, Sci. Rep.-UK, 11, 9383, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-88405-2, 2021.
Kummu, M. and Varis, O.: Sediment-related impacts due to upstream reservoir trapping, the Lower Mekong River, Geomorphology, 85, 275–293, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2006.03.024, 2007.
Kondolf, G. M., Rubin, Z. K., and Minear, J. T.: Dams on the Mekong: Cumulative sediment starvation, Water Resour. Res., 50, 5158–5169, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013WR014651, 2014.
Larsson, J.: eulerr: Area-Proportional Euler and Venn Diagrams with Ellipses, CRAN [code], https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=eulerr (last access: 1 March 2024), 2023.
Larsson, J. and Gustafsson, P.: A Case Study in Fitting Area-Proportional Euler Diagrams with Ellipses using eulerr, in: Proceedings of International Workshop on Set Visualization and Reasoning, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 18 June 2018, 2116, 84–91, 2018.
Le, T. V. H., Nguyen, H. N., Wolanski, E., Tran, T. C., and Haruyama, S.: The combined impact on the flooding in Vietnam's Mekong River delta of local man-made structures, sea level rise, and dams upstream in the river catchment, Estuar. Coast. Shelf S., 71, 110–116, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2006.08.021, 2007.
Lebel, L., Dore, J., Daniel, R., and Koma, Y. S.: Democratizing water governance in the Mekong Region, Mekong Press, http://www.mpowernetwork.org/Knowledge_Bank/Our_Books/PDF/Water_Governance.pdf (last access: 4 April 2023), 2007.
Lehner, B., Czisch, G., and Vassolo, S.: The impact of global change on the hydropower potential of Europe: A model- based analysis, Energ. Policy, 33, 839–855, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2003.10.018, 2005.
Lehner, B., Liermann, C. R., Revenga, C., Vörösmarty, C., Fekete, B., Crouzet, P., Döll, P., Endejan, M., Frenken, K., Magome, J., Nilsson, C., Robertson, J. C., Rödel, R., Sindorf, N., and Wisser, D.: High-resolution mapping of the world's reservoirs and dams for sustainable river-flow management, Front. Ecol. Environ., 9, 494–502, https://doi.org/10.1890/100125, 2011.
Leinenkugel, P., Kuenzer, C., Oppelt, N., and Dech, S.: Characterisation of land surface phenology and land cover based on moderate resolution satellite data in cloud prone areas—A novel product for the Mekong Basin, Remote Sens. Environ., 136, 180–198, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2013.05.004, 2013.
Li, J., Xia, J., and Ji, Q.: Rapid and long-distance channel incision in the Lower Yellow River owing to upstream damming, Catena, 196, 104943, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2020.104943, 2021.
Lu, X., Kummu, M., and Oeurng, C.: Reappraisal of sediment dynamics in the Lower Mekong River, Cambodia, Earth Surf. Proc. Land., 39, 1855–1865, https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.3573, 2014.
Li, X., Liu, J. P., Saito, Y., and Nguyen, V. L.: Recent evolution of the Mekong Delta and the impacts of dams, Earth-Sci. Rev., 175, 1–17, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.10.008, 2017.
MacDonald, L. H. and Coe, D.: Influence of headwater streams on downstream reaches in forested areas, Forest Sci., 53, 148–168, https://www.nrel.colostate.edu/assets/nrel_files/labs/macdonald-lab/pubs/MacDonald_Coe_Forest_Science.pdf (last access: 25 January 2024), 2007.
Matthews, N.: Water Grabbing in the Mekong Basin-An Analysis of the Winners and Losers of Thailand's Hydropower Development in Lao PDR, Water Altern., 5, 392–411, 2012.
Meijer, L. J. J., van der Ent, R. J., Hoes, A. C., Mondeel, H., Pramana, K. E. R., and van de Giesen, N. C.: World hydropower capacity evaluation, Netherlands, http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:49d8d013-9a48-4222-85a1-0ebb53f83dc8 (last access: 26 March 2023), 2012.
MIT: Stimson Mekong Infrastructure Tracker, https://www.stimson.org/project/mekong-infrastructure/ (last access: 29 January 2023), 2021.
MRC: Assessment of Basin-Wide Development Scenarios (Main Report), https://www.mrcmekong.org/resource/ajhykw (last access: 24 January 2023), 2011.
MRC: Briefing Notes Package 6th RTWG Meeting, https://www.mrcmekong.org/assets/Publications/Council-Study/6th-RTWG-Briefing-Notes-Package.pdf (last access: 18 September 2023), 2015.
MRC: Consultancy to assist the Hydropower Thematic in Council Study Development Scenarios, https://www.mrcmekong.org/assets/Publications/Council-Study/018-Hydropower-Development-Scenarios.pdf (last access: 21 December 2023), 2016.
MRC: Mekong Basin, https://www.mrcmekong.org/about/mekong-basin/ (last access: 23 September 2023).
Mulligan, M., van Soesbergen, A., and Sáenz, L.: GOODD, a global dataset of more than 38,000 georeferenced dams, Sci. Data, 7, 31, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-0362-5, 2020.
Observatory of Economic Complexity: Electricity in Laos, OEC – The Observatory of Economic Complexity, https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/electricity/reporter/lao (last access: 29 January 2023).
ODM: Greater Mekong Subregion hydropower dams, https://data.opendevelopmentmekong.net/en/dataset/greater-mekong-subregion-hydropower-dams (last access: 22 November 2022), 2014.
ODM: National grid, import of energy, consumption of energy, hydro-electric dams, https://data.opendevelopmentmekong.net/en/dataset/national-grid-import-of-energy-consumption-of-energy-hydro-electric-dams (last access: 22 November 2022), 2015.
ODM: Greater Mekong Subregion hydropower dams (2016), https://data.opendevelopmentmekong.net/en/dataset/greater-mekong-subregion-hydropower-dams-2016 (last access: 22 November 2022), 2016a.
ODM: Hydropower dam (1993–2020), https://data.opendevelopmentmekong.net/en/dataset/hydropower-2009-2014 (last access: 22 November 2022), 2016b.
ODM: Hydropower Dams in Myanmar 2017, https://data.opendevelopmentmekong.net/en/dataset/hydropower-dam-in-myanmar-2017 (last access: 22 November 2022), 2017a.
ODM: Hydropower 2017, ICEM (International Centre for Environmental Management) Prod2, https://data.opendevelopmentmekong.net/en/dataset/hydropower-2017-icem-international-centre-for-environmental-management-prod2 (last access: 22 November 2022), 2017b.
ODM: Myanmar Dams, https://data.opendevelopmentmekong.net/dataset/myanmar-dams (last access: 22 November 2022), 2018.
ODM: Mekong Regional Hydropower Dams 2020, https://data.opendevelopmentmekong.net/dataset/mekong-regional-hydropower-dams-2020 (last access: 22 November 2022), 2020a.
ODM: Hydropower Dams in Thailand, https://data.opendevelopmentmekong.net/en/dataset/hydropower-dams-in-thailand (last access: 22 November 2022), 2020b.
ODM: Laos to export 20,000 MW of electricity by 2030, https://opendevelopmentmekong.net/news/laos-to-export-20000-mw-of-electricity-by-2030/ (last access: 29 January 2023), 2020c.
ODM: Hydropower dams on primary rivers in the Mekong basin in 2022, https://data.opendevelopmentmekong.net/en/dataset/hydropower-dams-in-the-mekong-region-in-2022, last access: 22 November 2022.
ODM: Open Development Mekong Datahub, https://data.opendevelopmentmekong.net/dataset, last access: 29 January 2023.
Park, E., Loc, H. H., Van Binh, D., and Kantoush, S.: The worst 2020 saline water intrusion disaster of the past century in the Mekong Delta: Impacts, causes, and management implications, Ambio, 51, 691–699, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01577-z, 2022.
Pearse-Smith, S. W. D.: The Impact of Continued Mekong Basin Hydropower Development on Local Livelihoods, Consilience, 7, 73–86, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26167837 (last access: 7 April 2023), 2012.
Pholsena, S. and Phonekeo, D. D.: Lao hydropower potential and policy in the GMS context, United Nations Symposium on Hydropower and Sustainable Development, Beijing International Convention Centre, 1–7, https://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/sdissues/energy/op/hydro_phonekeoLaoPDR.pdf (last access: 2 March 2024), 27 October 2004.
Poff, N. L. and Hart, D. D.: How dams vary and why it matters for the emerging science of dam removal: an ecological classification of dams is needed to characterize how the tremendous variation in the size, operational mode, age, and number of dams in a river basin influences the potential for restoring regulated rivers via dam removal, BioScience, 52, 659–668, https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2002)052[0659:HDVAWI]2.0.CO;2, 2002..
Poindexter, G.: 86-MW Nam Phay hydropower project in Lao PDR officially commissioned, Hydro Review, https://www.hydroreview.com/world-regions/86-mw-nam-phay-hydropower-project-in-laos-officially-commissioned/ (last access: 15 February 2023), 2018.
Pokhrel, Y. N., Oki, T., and Kanae, S.: A Grid Based Assessment of Global Theoretical Hydropower Potential, Prooceedings of Hydraulic Engineering, 52, 7–12, https://doi.org/10.2208/prohe.52.7, 2008.
Pokhrel, Y. N., Felfelani, F., Shin, S., Yamada, T. J., and Satoh, Y.: Modeling large-scale human alteration of land surface hydrology and climate, Geosci. Lett., 4, 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40562-017-0076-5, 2017.
Pokhrel, Y., Felfelani, F., Satoh, Y., Boulange, J., Burek, P., Gädeke, A., Gosling, S. N., Grillakis, M., Gudmundsson, L., Hanasaki, N., Kim, H., Koutroulis, A., Liu, J., Papadimitriou, L., Schewe, J., Schmied, H. M., Stacke, T., Telteu, C., Thiery, W., Veldkamp, T., Zhao, F., and Wada, Y.: Global terrestrial water storage and drought severity under climate change, Nat. Clim. Change, 11, 226–233, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-00972-w, 2021.
Power Technology: Home, https://www.power-technology.com/ (last access: 19 December 2023).
Reyes-Gavilán, F. G., Garrido, R., Nicieza, A. G., Toledo, M. M., and Brana, F.: Fish community variation along physical gradients in short streams of northern Spain and the disruptive effect of dams, Hydrobiologia, 321, 155–163, https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00023171, 1996.
Rossi, C. G., Srinivasan, R., Jirayoot, K., Le Duc, T., Souvannabouth, P., Binh, N., and Gassman, P. W.: Hydrologic evaluation of the Lower Mekong River Basin with the soil and water assessment tool model, Int. Agric. Eng. J., 18, 1–13, https://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/48579 (last access: 20 March 2023), 2009.
Schmitt, R. J. P., Bizzi, S., Castelletti, A., and Kondolf, G. M.: Improved trade-offs of hydropower and sand connectivity by strategic dam planning in the Mekong, Nat. Sustain., 1, 96–104, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0022-3, 2018.
Shin, S., Pokhrel, Y., Yamazaki, D., Huang, X., Torbick, N., Qi, J., Pattanakiat, S., Ngo-Duc, T., and Nguyen, T. D.: High resolution modeling of river- floodplain-reservoir inundation dynamics in the Mekong River Basin, Water Resour. Res., 56, e2019WR026449, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019WR026449, 2020.
Soukhaphon, A., Baird, I. G., and Hogan, Z. S.: The Impacts of Hydropower Dams in the Mekong River Basin: A Review, Water, 13, 265, https://doi.org/10.3390/w13030265, 2021.
Souter, N. J., Shaad, K., Vollmer, D., Regan, H. M., Farrell, T. A., Arnaiz, M., Meynell, P.-J., Cochrane, T. A., Arias, M. E., Piman, T., and Andelman, S. J.: Using the Freshwater Health Index to Assess Hydropower Development Scenarios in the Sesan, Srepok and Sekong River Basin, Water, 12, 788, https://doi.org/10.3390/w12030788, 2020.
Speckhann, G. A., Kreibich, H., and Merz, B.: Inventory of dams in Germany, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 731–740, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-731-2021, 2021.
Sun, J., Du, W., Lucas, M. C., Ding, C., Chen, J., Tao, J., and He, D.: River fragmentation and barrier impacts on fishes have been greatly underestimated in the upper Mekong River, J. Environ. Manage., 327, 116817, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116817, 2023.
Tang, L., Mo, K., Zhang, J., Wang, J., Chen, Q., He, S., Zhu, C., and Lin, Y.: Removing tributary low-head dams can compensate for fish habitat losses in dammed rivers, J. Hydrol., 598, 126204, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2021.126204, 2021.
Tefera, W. M. and Kasiviswanathan, K. S.: A global-scale hydropower potential assessment and feasibility evaluations, Water Resour. Econ., 38, 100198, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wre.2022.100198, 2022.
The Anh, D., Van Tinh, T., and Ngoc Vang, N.: The Domestic Rice Value Chain in the Mekong Delta, in: White Gold: The Commercialisation of Rice Farming in the Lower Mekong Basin, edited by: Cramb, R., Springer Nature, 375–395, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0998-8_18, 2020.
The World Bank: Small Hydro Resource Mapping in LAO PDR Inception Report (Project ID. 1239196), https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/160621508232662247/pdf/120466-ESM-P163979-PUBLIC-LaoPDRHydropowerMappingInceptionReportWBESMAPJuly.pdf (last access: 19 December 2023), 2017.
Tiwari, A. D., Pokhrel, Y., Kramer, D., Akhter, T., Tang, Q., Liu, J., Qi, J., Loc, H. H., and Lakshmi, V.: A synthesis of hydroclimatic, ecological, and socioeconomic data for transdisciplinary research in the Mekong, Sci. Data, 10, 283, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02193-0, 2023.
Tri, V. K.: Hydrology and Hydraulic Infrastructure Systems in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, in: The Mekong Delta System: Interdisciplinary Analyses of a River Delta, edited by: Renaud, F. G. and Kuenzer, C., Springer Netherlands, 49–81, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3962-8_3, 2012.
Urban, F., Nordensvärd, J., Khatri, D., and Wang, Y.: An analysis of China's investment in the hydropower sector in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region, Environ. Dev. Sustain., 15, 301–324, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-012-9415-z, 2013.
USGS: EarthExplorer, https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ (last access: 30 January 2023).
VietNamNet: Hydro-power dam broken in Central Highlands, https://vietnamnet.vn/en/hydro-power-dam-broken-in-central-highlands-E76563.html (last access: 11 October 2023), 2013.
VnExpress: Confessions of a hydropower calamity in Vietnam, https://e.vnexpress.net/projects/confessions-of-a-hydropower-calamity-in-vietnam-3655314/index.html (last access: 11 October 2023), 2017.
Wang, J., Walter, B. A., Yao, F., Song, C., Ding, M., Maroof, A. S., Zhu, J., Fan, C., McAlister, J. M., Sikder, S., Sheng, Y., Allen, G. H., Crétaux, J.-F., and Wada, Y.: GeoDAR: georeferenced global dams and reservoirs dataset for bridging attributes and geolocations, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 1869–1899, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1869-2022, 2022a.
Wang, J., Walter, B. A., Yao, F., Song, C., Ding, M., Maroof, A. S., Zhu, J., Fan, C., McAlister, J. M., Safat Sikder, M., Sheng, Y., Allen, G. H., Crétaux, J.-F., and Wada, Y.: GeoDAR: Georeferenced global Dams And Reservoirs dataset for bridging attributes and geolocations, In Earth System Science Data (v1.1; v1.0, Bd. 14, Nummer 4, S. 1869–1899), Zenodo [data set], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6163413, 2022b.
Wang, P., Dong, S., and Lassoie, J.: The Large Dam Dilemma: An Exploration of the Impacts of Hydro Projects on People and the Environment in China, Springer Netherlands, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7630-2, 2014.
Wang, W., Lu, H., Ruby Leung, L., Li, H. Y., Zhao, J., Tian, F., Yang, K., and Sothea, K.: Dam construction in Lancang–Mekong River Basin could mitigate future flood risk from warming-induced intensified rainfall, Geophys. Res. Lett., 44, 10–378, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075037, 2017.
Wang, X., Xiao, X., Qin, Y., Dong, J., Wu, J., and Li, B.: Improved maps of surface water bodies, large dams, reservoirs, and lakes in China, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 3757–3771, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3757-2022, 2022.
Xu, S., Chen, M., Feng, T., Zhan, L., Zhou, L., and Yu, G.: Use ggbreak to effectively utilize plotting space to deal with large datasets and outliers, Front. Genet., 12, 2122, https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2021.774846, 2021.
Xue, Z., Liu, J. P., DeMaster, D., Van Nguyen, L., and Ta, T. K. O.: Late Holocene Evolution of the Mekong Subaqueous Delta, Southern Vietnam, Mar. Geol., 269, 46–60, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2009.12.005, 2010.
Yoshida, Y., Lee, H. S., Trung, B. H., Tran, H.-D., Lall, M. K., Kakar, K., and Xuan, T. D.: Impacts of Mainstream Hydropower Dams on Fisheries and Agriculture in Lower Mekong Basin, Sustainability, 12, 2408, https://doi.org/10.3390/su12062408, 2020.
Yuen, K. W., Park, E., Hazrina, M., Taufik, M., Santikayasa, P., Latrubesse, E., and Lee, J. S. H.: A Comprehensive Database of Indonesian Dams and Its Spatial Distribution, Remote Sens.-Basel, 15, 925, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15040925, 2023.
Zarfl, C., Lumsdon, A. E., Berlekamp, J., Tydecks, L., and Tockner, K.: A global boom in hydropower dam construction, Aquat. Sci., 77, 161–170, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-014-0377-0, 2015.
Zawahri, N. A. and Hensengerth, O.: Domestic environmental activists and the governance of the Ganges and Mekong Rivers in India and China, Int. Environ. Agreem.-P., 12, 269–298, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-012-9179-9, 2012.
Zhou, Y., Hejazi, M., Smith, S., Edmonds, J., Li, H., Clarke, L., Calvin, K., and Thomson, A.: A comprehensive view of global potential for hydro-generated electricity, Energy Environ. Sci., 8, 2622–2633, https://doi.org/10.1039/C5EE00888C, 2015.
Ziv, G., Baran, E., Nam, S., Rodríguez-Iturbe, I., and Levin, S. A.: Trading-off fish biodiversity, food security, and hydropower in the Mekong River Basin, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 109, 5609–5614, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1201423109, 2012.
Short summary
Dams have burgeoned in the Mekong, but information on dams is scattered and inconsistent. Up-to-date evaluation of dams is unavailable, and basin-wide hydropower potential has yet to be systematically assessed. We present a comprehensive database of 1055 dams, a spatiotemporal analysis of the dams, and a total hydropower potential of 1 334 683 MW. Considering projected dam development and hydropower potential, the vulnerability and the need for better dam management may be highest in Laos.
Dams have burgeoned in the Mekong, but information on dams is scattered and inconsistent....
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint