WaterBench-Iowa: A Large-scale Benchmark Dataset for Data-Driven Streamflow Forecasting

WaterBench-Iowa is a comprehensive benchmark dataset for streamflow forecasting. It follows FAIR data principles that are prepared with a focus on convenience for utilizing in data-driven and machine learning studies and provides benchmark performance for state-of-art deep learning architectures on the dataset for comparative analysis. By aggregating the datasets of streamflow, precipitation, watershed area, slope, soil types, and evapotranspiration from federal agencies and state organizations (i.e., NASA, NOAA, USGS, and Iowa Flood Center), we provided the WaterBench for hourly streamflow forecast studies. This dataset has a high temporal and spatial resolution with rich metadata and relational information, which can be used for varieties of deep learning and machine learning research. To some extent, WaterBench makes up for the lack of a unified benchmark in earth science research. We highly encourage researchers to use the WaterBench for deep learning research in hydrology.