Global Topographic Index for Hydrological Modeling

High-resolution global topographic index values quantify soil saturation propensity based on landscape position for hydrological modeling. This geospatial dataset serves as a corrected ancillary file for the TOPMODEL routing option within the JULES land surface model. Its values are directly comparable to the USGS Hydro1K compound topographic index at 30 arc-second resolution.

Use Cases

• Characterizing land surface hydrological regimes within modern land surface models based on topographic position.
• Providing topographic ancillary data for the TOPMODEL routing model option in the JULES simulator.
• Comparing global soil saturation propensity with the USGS Hydro1K compound topographic index.

Strengths

• Represents a corrected version, addressing a known 9.3 km westward shift error present in a previous release.
• Cross-platform presence on multiple open data portals suggests established importance and use within the scientific community.

Limitations

• Critical metadata such as spatial resolution, row count, file size, and license are not provided in any source.
• One source platform lists the dataset as 'withdrawn', creating uncertainty about its current authoritative status.
• Documentation is external via DOI links, requiring users to navigate away from the platform for full details.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service

Collection Method

Likely derived from global digital elevation models for hydrological parameter calculation.

Freshness

2026-04-23 11:13:41.264474

Geography

Global