Hydrology data holders

This section contains links to hydrology data holders and is divided into three sections: variable specific data holders, general International data holders, and country specific data holders. Data can be downloaded directly form the site. A number of data sets are also provided in the GEWEX data section.

Variable Specific Data Holders

Surface Water Discharge

Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC). Major activities of the GRDC include the collection and dissemination of river discharge data on global scale, and the provision of data products and specialised services for the research community, water managers and water-related programmes of the specialised agencies of the United Nations (UN).

University of New Hampshire, USA-Global Runoff Data Centre (UNH-GRDC) Composite Runoff Fields. The present data set demonstrates the potential of combining observed river discharge information with a climate-driven Water Balance Model in order to develop composite runoff fields which are consistent with observed discharges.

Surface Water Storage fluxes

Global Lake & Catchment Conservation Database. Contains global environmental data and information for large lakes (greater than 100km ² in area) supporting the monitoring and management of both inland water resources and biological resources.

Groundwater Storage fluxes

Centre for Groundwater Studies is an international cooperative research and education venture with strong focus on processes of groundwater recharge, discharge, contamination, remediation and management.

Precipitation

Climate Prediction Center (CPC) is involved in the development and maintenance of global precipitation datasets at various timescales.

Global Precipitation Analysis from the laboratory for atmospheres at NASA Goddard space flight center. The precipitation research group have constructed a number of data sets containing estimates of precipitation which are available at this site. Data quality may vary.

Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) carries out global precipitation analyses for monitoring and research of the earth's climate.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - Isotope Hydrology. The Section is responsible for the implementation of the IAEA programme in Water Resources, which supports applied research in isotope hydrology.

National Climate Data Center (NCDC) is the world's largest active archive of weather data. NCDC produces numerous climate publications and responds to data requests from all over the world. Get data

The U.S. Historical Climatology Network (U.S. HCN) was compiled in response to the need for an accurate, modern historical climate record for climate change research. USA monthly temperature and precipitation data is available which is gathered from a network of 1219 stations.

Evapotranspiration

FLUXNET is a global network of micrometeorological tower sites that use eddy covariance methods to measure the exchanges of carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapour, and energy between terrestrial ecosystem and atmosphere. FLUXNET's goals are to understand the mechanisms controlling the exchanges of CO2, water vapor and energy across a spectrum of time and space scales.

Soil Moisture

The Global Soil Moisture Data Bank. Entire downloadable data sets from sites around the world.

The Global Soil Wetness Project (GSWP) is an ongoing environmental modeling research activity contributing to the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX). Objectives include the production of global data sets of land surface fluxes, state variables, and related hydrologic quantities and the development of large-scale validation, calibration, and assimilation techniques over land.

The International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) has developed data sets on vegetation; hydrology and soils; snow, ice, and oceans; radiation and clouds, and near-surface meteorology

Soil Climate Analysis Network of the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). Real-Time data sets for approximately 40 stations that contain automated remote sites which collect soil moisture and soil temperature data along with precipitation, wind, and solar radiation data. Sites are located throughout the United States and other global locations.

Snow Water Equivalent

National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). Is a national information and referral center in support of polar and cryospheric research. NSIDC archives and distributes digital and analog snow and ice data and maintains information about snow cover, avalanches, glaciers, ice sheets, freshwater ice, sea ice, ground ice, permafrost, atmospheric ice, paleoglaciology, and ice cores.

Biogeochemical transport from land to ocean

Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) Biogeochemical modelling node. Focuses on aggregating biogeochemical budget model outputs. The goal is to compile regional carbon/nitrogen/phosphorus data and budget models for numerous coastal areas of the world that can be used to produce global syntheses models of their flux in the coastal zone.

Sediment load at large river mouths

Environment Canada - The Nature of Water - Sediment. An introduction to freshwater sediment and its effects, includes sampling methods and useful information.

FAO’s world river sediment yield database contains data on annual sediment yields in worldwide rivers and reservoirs, searchable by river, country and continent.

Pan-Arctic River Transport of Nutrients, Organic Matter, and Suspended Sediments (PARTNERS). The objective of the PARTNERS project is to establish a contemporary baseline of material flux from the pan-Arctic watershed to the Arctic Ocean.

International Hydrological Data Holders

AQUASTAT global information system of water and agriculture developed by the Land and Water Development Division of FAO. The objective of AQUASTAT is to provide users with comprehensive information on the state of agricultural water management across the world, with emphasis on developing countries and countries in transition.

EOS-WEBSTER (WEB based System for Terrestrial Ecosystem Research) is a digital library of Earth Science data serving the needs of both the Earth System Science community and the general public.

Flow Regimes from International Experimental and Network Data (FRIEND). A research programme to develop a better understanding of hydrological variability and similarity across different regions through the mutual exchange of data, knowledge and techniques.

Global Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS) Water Programme provides information on the state and trends of global inland water quality required as a basis for the sustainable management of the world's freshwater to support global environmental assessments and decision- making processes.

Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC) provides both historical and current Earth science data, information, and products from satellite, airborne, and surface-based instruments. The GHRC acquires basic data streams and produces derived products from many instruments spread across a variety of instrument platforms.

GES DISC DAAC: Hydrology Data and Information Web Site at the Goddard Space Flight Center's Distributed Active Archive Center. Contains a number of data sets from different hydrology campaigns.

Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) provides descriptions of Earth science data sets and services relevant to global change research. Includes data sets on ground water, snow/ice, surface water, and water quality. Data page

International Lake Environment Committee Foundation (ILEC). Promotes international cooperation for conservation of lake environments encouraging investigations and research on rational and suitable methods for environmental management and sustainable development, and scientific knowledge on lake environments. Data page

LakeNet is a global network of more than 900 people and organizations in 90+ countries working for the conservation and sustainable management of lakes. A Lake Data base is available containing lake, country, or region specific lake data (includes sedimentation and nutrient pollution practices).

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Centre (ORNL DAAC). A source for biogeochemical and ecological data useful for studying environmental processes. Ground, aircraft and satellite data as well data generated by computer models are available. The extent of data ranges from site-specific to global, and durations range from days to years.

Transboundary Freshwater Dispute Database was developed to aid the assessment of the process of water conflict prevention and resolution. The database includes treaties documents as well as an international river basins register and a transboundary freshwater spatial database.

UNEP Division of Early Warning and Assessment (DEWA). With Europe/GRID-Geneva it is one of UNEP's major centres for data and information management of global and regional environmental data used for environment assessment and "early-warning" activities of UNEP and its partners.

UNEP GEO data portal. An online database holding more than 400 different variables, as national, subregional, regional and global statistics or as geospatial data sets (maps), including fresh water issues.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency STORET (STOrage and RETrieval meta-database) is a repository for water quality, biological, and physical data and is used by state environmental agencies, EPA and other federal agencies and universities.

USGS Water Resources Application Software is a comprehensive data base that makes freely available software related material (data and documentation) on geochemical, ground water, surface water, and water quality.

Water Systems Analysis Groups involved in a number of research activities focused on the broad-scale aspects of the terrestrial water cycle. These activites include data set development, modeling, and global change impact assessment.

World Hydrological Cycle Observing System (WHYCOS). A global network of reference stations, which transmit hydrological and meteorological data in near real-time, via satellites, to NHSs and regional centres. Click on Current status of implementation of WHYCOS regional components.

World Meteorological Organization (WMO): Hydrology and Water Resource Programme (HWRP). Provides for the collection and analysis of hydrological data as a basis for assessing and managing freshwater resources.

World Resources Institute (WRI) Water Resources and Freshwater Directory.
Contains “EarthTrends” section with a comprehensive online database that focuses on the environmental, social and economic trends, including water resources and fresh water ecosystems. Also included is “watersheds of the world” maps and profiles which portray issues affecting water resources, including land cover and use, population density, and freshwater biodiversity.

The World’s Water: Provides up-to-date information, data, and web connections on the world’s freshwater resources.

Country Specific Data Holders

Australia

Australian Agriculture and Natural Resources has free access to hydrology data, the Streamline data is of particular interest regarding hydrology data.

New South Wales - Department of Land and Water Conservation (NSW - DLWC) WaterInfo website contains a range of provisional data concerning NSW rivers and water bodies. This data is generally used for the management of our rivers and the surrounding environment.

Water and River’s Commission of Australia. The Water and Rivers Commission works closely with all levels of government, industry and the community to protect and manage Western Australia's water resources, including wetlands, rivers, estuaries, inlets and groundwater. See data

Canada

Environment Canada: Canadian Climate and Water Information System. Provides information on the national climate and surface water (hydrometric and sediment) data archives. Data must be ordered.

Environment Canada: National Water Research Institute (NWRI). Carries out a comprehensive programme of ecosystem-based research and development in the aquatic sciences, generating and disseminating scientific knowledge needed to resolve environmental issues of regional, national or international significance to Canada.

Environment Canada: Water Survey of Canada. Is the national agency responsible for the collection, interpretation and dissemination of standardized water resource data and information in Canada.

France

French Data Water Network (RNDE). The aim of the RNDE is to improve data access, through the coherent management of water-related data within a network partnership.

Russia

State Hydrological Institute (SHI) is the leading research institution in Russia on hydrology of land and water resources.

United Kingdom

Land Ocean Interaction Study Programme (LOIS). The purpose of LOIS is to extend understanding of the movement of fluxes between the different components of the environment, particularly the land, air and ocean phases (for the UK).

USA

US Environmental Protection Agency Water contains descriptions of more than 70 Office of Water databases, models, and other information resources are catalogued in the Environmental Information Management System.

USGS Water Resources of the United States. Includes Real-time data, data for surface water, ground water, and water quality for the whole United States.