GRFRV1.0: Global Reach-level 3-hourly river flood reanalysis (1980-2019)- A Big Earth Data Platform for Three Poles

The global reach-level 3-hourly river flood reanalysis (GRFR) dataset includes 1) global 0.05 degree, 3-hourly/daily runoff data, 2) 3hourly/daily naturalized river discharge at 2.94 million river reaches, 3) global 3-hourly river flood events from 1980 to 2019, 4) underlying hydrography MERIT-Basins.

Grounded on recent breakthroughs in global runoff hydrology, river modeling, high-resolution hydrography, and climate reanalysis, the 3-hourly river discharge record globally for 2.94 million river reaches during the 40-yr period of 1980–2019 was developed. The underlying modeling chain consists of the VIC land surface model (0.05°, 3-hourly) that is well calibrated and bias-corrected and the RAPID routing model (2.94 million river and catchment vectors), with precipitation input from MSWEP and other meteorological fields downscaled from ERA5. Flood events (above 2-yr return) and their characteristics (number, spatial distribution, and seasonality) were extracted and studied. Validations against 3-hourly flow records from 6,000+ gauges in CONUS and daily records from 14,000+ gauges globally show good modeling performance across all flow ranges, good skills in reconstructing flood events (high extremes), and the benefit of (and need for) sub-daily modeling.

The GRFR database represents a pioneering effort on global reach-level flood reanalysis and may offer new opportunities for global flood studies in terms of baseline data and potential research pathways. Also, it can better help river-observing satellite missions to develop their discharge algorithms.

File naming and required software

The global VIC runoff is stored in nc format. The file name is "RUNOFF_yyyy. nc", where yyyy represents the year.
The river discharge is stored in nc format, and the file name is "output_pfaf_xx_1979-2019.nc", where xx represents the region, 01 represents Africa, 02 represents Europe, 03 represents North Asia (Siberia), 04 represents South Asia, 05 represents Oceania, 06 represents South America, 07 represents North America, and 08 represents the Arctic.
The global 3-hour river flood events data is stored in nc format. The file name is "mswep_output_mswep_threshold_gt20_pfaf_xx_1980_2019_2daprt. nc", where xx represents the region.
The underlying hydrography dataset contains two levels. Level_01 provides the first level rivers (riv) and catchments (cat) infomation for pfaf 0x (where 0x stands for region). Level_02 provides the second level rivers (riv) and catchments (cat) information for pfaf xy, where x stands for region, y stands for the subregion y of the region x. The hydrography data are stored in shp and dbf format, which can be easily read by ARCGIS.

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Cite as:

Yang, Y., Pan, M., Lin, P. (2022). GRFRV1.0: Global Reach-level 3-hourly river flood reanalysis (1980-2019). A Big Earth Data Platform for Three Poles, DOI: 10.11888/Terre.tpdc.272901. CSTR: 18406.11.Terre.tpdc.272901. (Download the reference： RIS | Bibtex )

Related Literatures:

1. Yang, Y., Pan, M., Lin, P.R., Beck, H.E., Zeng, Z.Z., Yamazaki, D., David, C.H., Lu, H., Yang, K., Hong, Y., and Wood, E.F. (2021). Global Reach-level 3-hourly river flood reanalysis (1980-2019). Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 102(11), E2086-E2105.( View Details | Bibtex)

Using this data, the data citation is required to be referenced and the related literatures are suggested to be cited.

References literature

1.Lin, P., Pan, M., Beck, H.E., Yang, Y., Yamazaki, D., Frasson, R., David, C.H., Durand, M., Pavelsky, T., Allen, G., Gleason, C., & Wood, E.F. (2019). Global reconstruction of naturalized river flows at 2.94 million reaches. Water Resources Research, 55 (8), 6499-6516. (View Details )

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