Res-CN: Reservoir-Catchment Characteristics for 3,254 Chinese Reservoirs

3,254 Chinese reservoirs are described by 512 attributes covering upstream catchments, topography, climate, land use, and soil. The dataset also includes time series of 15 meteorological variables and satellite-derived water storage, level, area, and evaporation data for most reservoirs. Youjiang Shen from The University of Tokyo compiled this data, which is associated with a manuscript submitted to Earth System Science Data.

Use Cases

• Modeling reservoir water storage dynamics based on satellite-derived storage anomaly and water level data.
• Analyzing the impact of catchment characteristics like topography and land use on reservoir hydrology.
• Studying climate variability effects on reservoirs using the 15 meteorological variable time series.
• Validating satellite remote sensing products for inland water bodies based on the provided validation figures and metrics.

Strengths

• Covers 3,254 reservoirs, providing a large-scale view of Chinese water resources.
• Includes 512 attributes per reservoir, suggesting detailed catchment-level characterization.
• Satellite-derived data (storage, level, area, evaporation) is available for a high percentage (92-99%) of the reservoirs.
• Provides validation figures and statistical metrics for key hydrological variables.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• The availability of certain time series data (e.g., water level at 20%) varies across reservoirs.

Provenance

Source

The University of Tokyo (author: Youjiang Shen)

Collection Method

Likely compiled from multisource satellites (radar/laser altimeters, Landsat, Sentinel-2) and other geospatial data sources.

Geography

China