Global Surface Water Explorer

A virtual time machine that maps the location and temporal distribution of water surfaces at the global scale over the past 3.5 decades, and provides statistics on their extent and change to support better informed water-management decision-making. Data is provided on surface water occurrence, change in occurrence, surface water seasonality, surface water recurrence, transitions in surface water class (permanent or seasonal) and maximum extent over the time period of the data.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Author Jean-Francois Pekel, Andrew Cottam, Noel Gorelick, Alan S. Belward, High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes. Nature 540, 418-422 (2016). (doi:10.1038/nature20584)
Last Updated December 14, 2021, 13:26 (UTC)
Created July 12, 2020, 23:44 (UTC)
Release Year 2019