Southern Africa Freshwater Wetlands Distribution Grid

Southern Africa's freshwater wetlands are mapped in this 1-degree resolution geospatial dataset. It is a regional subset of a global database, synthesized from Aselman and Crutzen's 1989 wetlands data and Klinger's 1995 Political Alaska data set, interpolated to a standard grid. The dataset was created to support the specification of wetlands in global climate models.

Use Cases

• Parameterizing wetland extent and type in global or regional climate model simulations.
• Analyzing the spatial distribution of different wetland categories (e.g., seasonally varying) across southern Africa.
• Using the percent cover values in a 1-degree by 1-degree grid for land cover change studies.
• Serving as a baseline map for comparing contemporary wetland distributions against historical reconstructions.

Strengths

• Derived from a foundational global wetlands data set (Aselman and Crutzen, 1989) cited in climate science literature.
• Provides a uniform 1-degree by 1-degree grid, facilitating its use in standard climate models.
• Incorporates a supplementary data set (Klinger's Political Alaska, 1995) to address geographic gaps in the primary source.

Limitations

• Primary source resolution is coarse (2.5-deg latitude by 5-deg longitude), and the 1-degree data is an interpolation.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist: NASA Earthdata lists 1995-09-30, while Data.gov lists 2026-03-12 (a future date suggesting a metadata error).
• Specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided by any platform.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Derived from the Global Distribution of Freshwater Wetlands database.

Collection Method

Assembled from Aselman and Crutzen's (1989) wetlands data and Klinger's (1995) Political Alaska data set, interpolated to a 1-degree grid using bilinear interpolation.

Time Range

1989-1995

Freshness

1995-09-30

Geography

Southern Africa.