Global River Topology (GRIT) vector datasets

This is the vector dataset of the Global River Topology (GRIT). GRIT is a global river network that not only represents the tributary components of the global drainage network but also the distributary ones, including multi-thread rivers, canals and delta distributaries. It is also the first global hydrography (excluding Antarctica and Greenland) produced at 30m raster resolution. It is created by merging Landsat-based river mask (GRWL) with elevation-generated streams to ensure a homogeneous drainage density outside of the river mask (rivers narrower than approx. 30m). Crucially, it uses a new 30m digital terrain model (FABDEM, based on TanDEM-X) that shows greater accuracy over the traditionally used SRTM derivatives. After vectorisation and pruning, directionality is assigned by a combination of elevation, flow angle, heuristic and continuity approaches (based on RivGraph). The vector data including the network topology (lines and nodes, upstream/downstream IDs) is available as layers and attribute information in GeoPackage files (readable by QGIS/ArcMap/GDAL). The 30m raster data is available as compressed GeoTIFF files. See Wortmann et al. (2025, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024WR038308) for more details. See README.pdf for the technical discription of the available datasets.

A map of GRIT segments labelled with OSM river names is available here:

https://michelwortmann.com/research/global-river-topology-grit/

Report bugs and feedback

Your feedback and bug reports are welcome here: GRIT bug report form

The feedback may be used to improve and validate GRIT in future versions.