Articles | Volume 17, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-2277-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-2277-2025
Data description paper
 | 
04 Jun 2025
Data description paper |  | 04 Jun 2025

Mapping the world's inland surface waters: an upgrade to the Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD v2)

Bernhard Lehner, Mira Anand, Etienne Fluet-Chouinard, Florence Tan, Filipe Aires, George H. Allen, Philippe Bousquet, Josep G. Canadell, Nick Davidson, Meng Ding, C. Max Finlayson, Thomas Gumbricht, Lammert Hilarides, Gustaf Hugelius, Robert B. Jackson, Maartje C. Korver, Liangyun Liu, Peter B. McIntyre, Szabolcs Nagy, David Olefeldt, Tamlin M. Pavelsky, Jean-Francois Pekel, Benjamin Poulter, Catherine Prigent, Jida Wang, Thomas A. Worthington, Dai Yamazaki, Xiao Zhang, and Michele Thieme

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Cited articles

Aires, F., Miolane, L., Prigent, C., Pham, B., Fluet-Chouinard, E., Lehner, B., and Papa, F.: A Global Dynamic Long-Term Inundation Extent Dataset at High Spatial Resolution Derived through Downscaling of Satellite Observations, J. Hydrometeorol., 18, 1305–1325, https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-16-0155.1, 2017. 
Al-Handal, A. and Hu, C. M.: MODIS Observations of Human-Induced Changes in the Mesopotamian Marshes in Iraq, Wetlands, 35, 31–40, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-014-0590-6, 2015. 
Alho, C. J. R.: The Pantanal, in: The World's Largest Wetlands: Ecology and Conservation, edited by: Fraser, L. H. and Keddy, P. A., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 203–271, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511542091.008, 2005. 
Allen, G. H. and Pavelsky, T. M.: Global extent of rivers and streams, Science, 361, 585–587, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat0636, 2018. 
Allen, G. H., Pavelsky, T. M., Barefoot, E. A., Lamb, M. P., Butman, D., Tashie, A., and Gleason, C. J.: Similarity of stream width distributions across headwater systems, Nat. Commun., 9, 610, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-02991-w, 2018. 
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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 × 106 km2, equivalent to 13.4 % of total global land area.
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