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Full catalog/ASTWBD
ASTWBD·v001·dataset

Map of lakes, rivers and other water bodies (ASTER)

ASTER Global Water Bodies Database V001
land NASA LPCLOUD Level 3 GeoTIFF
In plain English

What it measures. A worldwide map of water bodies, identifying oceans, lakes and rivers larger than about a fifth of a square kilometer and giving their surface elevation, at roughly 30-meter detail.

How it's made. Created alongside the ASTER global elevation model from the same Terra satellite imagery (2000-2013), with water separated from land, sorted into ocean, river or lake, and given corrected, consistent surface heights.

How & where you'd use it. Mapping inland and coastal waters for hydrology, flood studies and geographic reference, and improving elevation data by giving water surfaces sensible, flat heights.

What's measured

LAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATIONLAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATION › DIGITAL ELEVATION/TERRAIN MODEL (DEM)LAND SURFACE › TOPOGRAPHY › TERRAIN ELEVATION › TOPOGRAPHICAL RELIEF MAPSTERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE › SURFACE WATER › SURFACE WATER FEATURES

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2000-03-01 → 2013-11-30
  • Measured byTerra (ASTER)
  • Processing levelLevel 3
  • Spatial extent-180, -83, 180, 82
  • FormatsGeoTIFF
  • StatusCOMPLETE

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

The Terra Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) Global Water Bodies Database (ASTWBD) Version 1 data product provides global coverage of water bodies larger than 0.2 square kilometers at a spatial resolution of 1 arc second (approximately 30 meters) at the equator, along with associated elevation information. The ASTWBD data product was created in conjunction with the ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model (ASTER GDEM) Version 3 data product by the Sensor Information Laboratory Corporation (SILC) in Tokyo. The ASTER GDEM Version 3 data product was generated using [ASTER Level 1A](https://doi.org/10.5067/ASTER/AST_L1A.003) scenes acquired between March 1, 2000, and November 30, 2013. The ASTWBD data product was then generated to correct elevation values of water body surfaces. To generate the ASTWBD data product, water bodies were separated from land areas and then classified into three categories: ocean, river, or lake. Oceans and lakes have a flattened, constant elevation value. The effects of sea ice were manually removed from areas classified as oceans to better delineate ocean shorelines in high latitude areas. For lake water bodies, the elevation for each lake was calculated from the perimeter elevation data using the mosaic image that covers the entire area of the lake. Rivers presented a unique challenge given that their elevations gradually step down from upstream to downstream; therefore, visual inspection and other manual detection methods were required. The geographic coverage of the ASTWBD extends from 83°N to 83°S. Each tile is distributed in GeoTIFF format and referenced to the 1984 World Geodetic System (WGS84)/1996 Earth Gravitational Model (EGM96) geoid. Each data product is provided as a zipped file that contains an attribute file with the water body classification information and a DEM file, which provides elevation information in meters.

Get the data

astwbd_access.py
import earthaccess
earthaccess.login(strategy="netrc")          # free Earthdata Login

results = earthaccess.search_data(
    short_name="ASTWBD",
    version="001",
    bounding_box=(-122.5, 37.2, -121.8, 37.9),  # your area (W,S,E,N)
    temporal=("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31"),       # your dates
)
files = earthaccess.open(results)   # stream straight from LPCLOUD
Browsing CMR needs no login. Downloading or streaming bytes needs a free Earthdata Login + the earthaccess package.