HR: 1330h
AN: H33A-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Hydrological Data and Maps Based on SRTM Elevation Derivatives at Multiple Scales
AU: * Lehner, B
EM: bernhard.lehner@wwfus.org
AF: Conservation Science Program World Wildlife Fund US, 1250 24th Street NW, Washington, DC 20037 United States
AB: Watershed analyses, hydrological modeling, and freshwater conservation planning typically require information on stream networks, watershed boundaries, or drainage routing schemes in digital format. Aiming to provide a new generation of these data at a global extent, World Wildlife Fund is currently developing the HydroSHEDS data set (Hydrological data and maps based on Shuttle elevation derivatives at multiple scales). HydroSHEDS is based on elevation data of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). As its core data layer, HydroSHEDS provides a seamless near-global drainage direction map at a resolution of 3 arc-seconds (90 meters). From this map, additional products are derived at multiple scales, including hierarchical watershed delineations and topological river networks. To generate HydroSHEDS, the original SRTM elevation data have been hydrologically conditioned in a sequence of automated procedures. Both standard methods of data improvement and newly developed algorithms have been applied, including customized gap filling, filtering, stream burning, and upscaling techniques. Manual corrections were added where necessary. Preliminary quality assessments indicate that the accuracy of HydroSHEDS significantly exceeds that of existing global watershed and river maps. For many regions, and particularly large river basins, the new data can support hydrological assessments at previously inaccessible resolutions and extents.
DE: 1800 HYDROLOGY
DE: 1848 Networks
DE: 1899 General or miscellaneous
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly