A Global Lake/Reservoir Surface Extent Dataset (GLRSED)

Global lake/reservoir surface water extent is the basic input data for many studies. Although there are some datasets at present, there are problems such as incomplete or spatial inconsistency exist among them due to various reasons like different data sources and dynamic change characteristics of the surface water. Here, a new Global Lake/Reservoir Surface Extent Dataset (GLRSED) that contains spatial extent and basic attributes (e.g., name, area, lake type and source) of 2.17 million lakes/reservoirs was produced based on HydroLAKES, GRanD and OpenStreetMap. By spatially overlaying GLRSED with other auxiliary data, we identified mountain lakes, endorheic lakes, reservoirs, glacier-fed lakes and permafrost-fed lakes, etc. In addition, we calculated the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) orbits passing through each lake. The dataset could provide basic data for global lake/reservoir monitoring, as well as the study on the impact of human actions and climate changes on lake/reservoir freshwater availability, etc.