Global Reservoir Dataset (GRD)

Description:
This dataset contains spatial polygons and estimated storage capacities for 425,023 global reservoirs. The storage volumes (vol_rep_km3) are derived through a hierarchical approach: prioritizing reported values from GeoDAR and HydroLAKE, and falling back to size-dependent empirical area-volume power laws for unlisted reservoirs.

Column Descriptions:

– status: Operational status of the reservoir (e.g., 0=Stable, 1=Constructed, 2=Disappeared,). (Type: String)
– change_year: Reservoir’s “Constructed” or “Disappeared” year. (Type: Integer/Year)
– lon: Longitude of the reservoir geometric centroid (WGS84). (Type: Decimal Degrees)
– lat: Latitude of the reservoir geometric centroid (WGS84). (Type: Decimal Degrees)
– area_km2: Surface area of the reservoir water body. (Unit: km2)
– geometry: Polygon geometry defining the reservoir boundary. (Type: Shapefile Polygon)
– source: Source identifier for the reservoir boundary data. (Type: String)
– vol_rep_km3: Representative storage volume. This is the best-available estimate, combining direct records and empirical modeling. (Unit: km3)
– vol_source: Metadata indicating the origin of the volume estimate (e.g., ‘GeoDAR’, ‘HydroLAKE’, or specific empirical equation name). (Type: String)

• “GeoDAR” (dataset): Wang, J., Walter, B. A., Yao, F., et al. (2022). GeoDAR: Georeferenced global dams and reservoirs dataset for bridging attributes and geolocations. *Earth System Science Data*, 14, 1869-1899.
• “HydroLAKE” (dataset): Messager, M. L., Lehner, B., Grill, G., et al. (2016). Estimating the volume and age of water stored in global lakes using a geo-statistical approach. *Nature Communications*, 7, 13603.
• “Messager” (empirical equation): Estimated using the general empirical equation provided in the same paper as “HydroLAKE” that relies solely on surface area.
• “Song” (empirical equation): Song, C., Fan, C., Zhu, J., et al. (2022). A comprehensive geospatial database of nearly 100 000 reservoirs in China. *Earth System Science Data*, 14, 4017-4034.
• “Pena-Arancibia” (empirical equation): Peña-Arancibia, J. L., Malerba, M. E., Wright, N., et al. (2023). Characterising the regional growth of on-farm storages and their implications for water resources under a changing climate. *Journal of Hydrology*, 625, 130097.