GLORIN – GLOBAL LARGE RIVERS INVENTORY

The GLORIN (Global Large River Inventory) database is a global, vector-based river network constructed using key geomorphometric parameters such as river length, width, and longitudinal slope. The dataset includes all rivers longer than 400 km, classified as Long Rivers (LOR), and those longer than 400 km with a mean water surface width exceeding 150 m, classified as Large Rivers (LAR). For validation, we used Google Earth Imagery as well as the GRIT and OSM databases, to ensure an accurate source-to-sink representation. Mean water surface width was computed from orthogonal cross-sections generated at 50 km intervals along each river. Lakes and reservoirs were excluded from the cross-section calculations to avoid distortion. Longitudinal slope was derived in Google Earth Engine using the Copernicus GLO-30 DEM, calculated along the full river course with 50km interval along the centerline. The final network topology is provided as ESRI Shapefile layers with corresponding attribute information. Additionally, separate files reporting rivers for each region are provided, based on the World Continent shapefile from ArcGIS Hub. Regions Vector files for Long Rivers (LOR) and Large Rivers (LAR) are provided for 6 global regions. Below are the details of each region, including river counts, river ID range, and corresponding projected coordinate system used. All files are also available in a common equal-area projection (EPSG:8857). River_ID Continent LOR (No. of Rivers) LAR (No. of Rivers) Projected Coordinate System Used Common Projected Coordinate System Used 100001 Africa 135 86 EPSG: 102022 - Africa Alberts Equal Area Conic EPSG: 8857 - WGS 84 / Equal Earth Greenwich 200001 Asia 384 209 EPSG: 27703 - WGS 84 / Equi7 Asia 300001 Europe 107 46 EPSG: 3035 - ETRS89-extended / LAEA Europe 400001 North America 176 120 EPSG: 102008 - North America Albers Equal Area Conic 500001 South America 226 112 EPSG: 102033 - South America Albers Equal Area Conic 600001 Australia and Oceania 21 6 EPSG: 27706 - WGS 84 / Equi7 Oceania Total No. of Rivers 1049 579 Attribute description of the layers: Name Data Type Description River_ID Integer64 Global river identifier Continent String Continent name River_Name String River name from OSM (English, where available). Not available river names are marked as NODATA Len_km Real River length in kilometres MeanWid_m Real Mean water surface width based on orthogonal cross sections at 50km interval MeanSlo_d Real Mean Longitudinal Slope of the entire river in degrees derived from DEM Underlying sources: - SWORD: https://zenodo.org/records/15299138 - Google Earth Imagery - Global River Topology (GRIT): https://zenodo.org/records/11219313 - OSM waterways: https://www.openstreetmap.org - Copernicus GLO-30 Global DEM: https://dataspace.copernicus.eu/explore-data/data-collections/copernicus-contributing-missions/collections-description/COP-DEM File Naming Convention All vector files follow a standardized naming structure: <Region>_<Category>_<Projection>_<version>.{shp, dbf, cpg, shx, prj, qmd} Where: Region = Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Australia and Oceania Category = LOR or LAR Projection = EPSG code (region-specific or EPSG8857) Example: Africa_LOR_EPSG102022_v01.shp Africa_LAR_EPSG8857_v01.shp Asia_LOR_EPSG27703_v01.shp Europe_LAR_EPSG8857_v01.shp