Watershed Deforestation Estimates for Rondonia Brazil

This dataset provides 1999 estimates of cumulative deforestation as a proportion of total area for watersheds in Rondonia, Brazil, derived from a Landsat TM time series spanning 1975 to 1999. It includes six ESRI ArcGIS shapefiles delineating watershed boundaries for stream orders 2-7, based on a 90-m SRTM DEM, and a corresponding CSV file with deforestation proportions. The data was produced by ORNL_CLOUD using methods documented by Biggs et al. (2008).

Use Cases

• Analyzing the relationship between stream order and cumulative deforestation percentage within watersheds.
• Mapping watershed boundaries for hydrological modeling in Rondonia using the provided shapefiles.
• Studying long-term deforestation trends from 1975 to 1999 at a watershed scale by linking the CSV data to spatial features.

Strengths

• Based on a multi-decadal Landsat time series from 1975 to 1999, providing a long-term perspective.
• Uses a high-resolution 90-m SRTM DEM for accurate watershed and stream network delineation.
• Validated against 1:100,000 topographic maps, ensuring spatial accuracy of the stream networks.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA EarthData and Data.gov signals importance and reliability.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, column names, and dataset size are unknown across all sources.
• Conflicting last updated dates exist: one source lists 1999-12-31, while others list 2026-03-13, creating uncertainty about data currency.
• Deforestation data for first-order streams is available but not provided as a shapefile, limiting spatial analysis for the smallest watersheds.

Provenance

Source

ORNL_CLOUD

Collection Method

Deforestation maps from multiple Landsat TM scenes, with watersheds delineated using a flow accumulation algorithm on a 90-m SRTM DEM.

Time Range

1975 to 1999

Freshness

2026-03-13

Geography

Rondonia, Brazil