The Surface Water Chemistry (SWatCh) database: A standardized global database of water chemistry to facilitate large-sample hydrological research

Abstract. Openly accessible global scale surface water chemistry datasets are urgently needed to detect widespread trends and problems, to help identify their possible solutions, and identify critical spatial data gaps where more monitoring is required. Existing datasets are limited in availability, sample size/sampling frequency, and geographic scope. These limitations inhibit the answering of emerging transboundary water chemistry questions, for example, the detection and understanding of delayed recovery from freshwater acidification. Here, we begin to address these limitations by compiling the global surface water chemistry (SWatCh) database, available on Zenodo (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4559696) We collect, clean, standardize, and aggregate open access data provided by six national and international agencies to compile a database consisting of three relational datasets: sites, methods, and samples, and one GIS shapefile of site locations. We remove poor quality data (for example, values flagged as suspect), standardize variable naming conventions and units, and perform other data cleaning steps required for statistical analysis. The database contains water chemistry data across seven continents, 17 variables, 38,598 sites, and over 9 million samples collected between 1960 and 2019. We identify critical spatial data gaps in the equatorial and arid climate regions, highlighting the need for more data collection and sharing initiatives in these areas, especially considering freshwater ecosystems in these environs are predicted to be among the most heavily impacted by climate change. We identify the main challenges associated with compiling global databases – limited data availability, dissimilar sample collection and analysis methodology, and reporting ambiguity – and provide recommendations to address them. By addressing these challenges and consolidating data from various sources into one standardized, openly available, high quality, and trans-boundary database, SWatCh allows users to conduct powerful and robust statistical analyses of global surface water chemistry.