jrc_surface_water_transitions_1984_2020
created_on
2023-05-04T13:11:58.897233
updated_on
2023-05-04T13:11:58.897234
geographic_coverage
78N-60S
citation
Pekel, Jean-François, Andrew Cottam, Noel Gorelick, and Alan S. Belward. 2016. "High-Resolution Mapping of Global Surface Water and Its Long-Term Changes." Nature 540: 418-422. doi:10.1038/nature20584. Accessed through Resource Watch, (date). [www.resourcewatch.org](https://www.resourcewatch.org).
title
Global Surface Water Extent
license
[Source open licence](https://global-surface-water.appspot.com/download)
overview
Additional Information Resource Watch shows only a subset of the dataset. For access to the full dataset and additional information, click on the “Learn more” button.
function
Location and temporal distribution of global surface water from 1984 to 2020
cautions
Any bodies of water smaller than 30 m resolution are not recognized. Similarly, bodies of water obscured by vegetation or built infrastructure are not recognized. Gaps in the image archives due to cloud cover or sensor failure can lead to instances of surface water being missed. Not all regions of the world are represented from the beginning of this data set in 1984. For example, parts of Siberia and Kolyma were not included in the image record until 1999 and 1995, respectively. The data were checked for errors of omission (not labeling a pixel as water when it was) and for errors of commission (labeling a pixel as water when it was not), and some of these errors were corrected. Some errors remain, partly due to errors of commission stemming from needing improved urban area and infrastructural information to help train the decision algorithms not to confuse built areas for water. A failure of Landsat 7's scan line corrector (SLC) caused the loss of about 22% of each scene, resulting in fragmented images. This occasionally led to potentially confusing results, which can be identified as sections of the water occurrence maps having a "slatted appearance."
key_restrictions
Source open licence
tags
geospatialrasterglobalwater_extentsurface_waterriverlake
why_added
Adding to MapBuilder
learn_more
https://global-surface-water.appspot.com
id
4c9f9702-e212-455d-ba41-aee74379eb71