Major cities

Global populated places point dataset at 1:10 million scale from Natural Earth, covering cities, towns, and villages from Tokyo to small settlements. Includes population estimates, administrative codes, and scale rank attributes for cartographic filtering by city size. Use this layer for settlement mapping, demographic analysis, place name labelling, and location-based services globally. No additional information provided.

This dataset is derived from the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) HydroSHEDS drainage direction layer and a stream network layer. The source of the drainage direction layer was the 15-second Digital Elevation Model (DEM) from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM). The raster stream network was determined by using the HydroSHEDS flow accumulation grid, with a threshold of about 1000 km² upstream area. The stream network dataset consists of the following information: the origin node of each arc in the network (FROM_NODE), the destination of each arc in the network (TO_NODE), the Strahler stream order of each arc in the network (STRAHLER), numerical code and name of the major basin that the arc falls within (MAJ_BAS and MAJ_NAME); - area of the major basin in square km that the arc falls within (MAJ_AREA); - numerical code and name of the sub-basin that the arc falls within (SUB_BAS and SUB_NAME); - area of the sub-basin in square km that the arc falls within (SUB_AREA); - numerical code of the sub-basin towards which the sub-basin flows that the arc falls within (TO_SUBBAS) (the codes -888 and -999 have been assigned respectively to internal sub-basins and to sub-basins draining into the sea). The attributes table now includes a field named "Regime" with tentative classification of perennial ("P") and intermittent ("I") streams. **Data publication:** 2014-03-10 **Supplemental Information:** **Time coverage**: 2014 **Contact points:** Resource Contact: [Jippe Hoogeveen](mailto:jippe.hoogeveen@fao.org) Resource Contact: [Livia Peiser](mailto:livia.peiser@fao.org) Metadata Contact: [AQUASTAT](mailto:aquastat@fao.org) **Data lineage:** For technical information on the data source, please visite the HydroSHEDS official web site **Resource constraints:** This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC-BY-4.0) **Online resources:** Download - Major rivers of the world (ESRI shapefile) Download - Rivers data documentation (PDF) More updated information on HydroSHEDS 2025 Technical information on the data source

Global urban area polygons at 1:10 million scale from Natural Earth, representing the extent of built-up areas in cities and towns worldwide. Includes urban extent polygons with population and scale rank attributes. Use this layer for urban growth analysis, population distribution mapping, infrastructure planning, land use analysis, and cartographic base mapping at global and continental scales. No additional information provided.

This dataset was obtained by delineating drainage basin boundaries from hydrologically corrected elevation data (HydroSHEDS and Hydro1K). Input data resolution is 15 arc-seconds between 60 N and 60 S latitude (based on SRTM), and 30 arc-seconds for higher latitudes (based on GTOPO30). The dataset consists of the following information: numerical code (MAJ_BAS), name (MAJ_NAME) and area (MAJ_AREA) of the major basin in square km. **Data creation:** 2011-02-02 **Supplemental Information:** This dataset is developed as part of a GIS-based information system on water resources. It has been published in the framework of the AQUASTAT - programme of the Land and Water Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The map is also available in the SOLAW Report 15: “Sustainable options for addressing land and water problems – A problem tree and case studies”. **Citation:** Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Land and Water Division. Major hydrological basins of the world. Latest update: 02/02/2011. Accessed (dd-mm/yy) from: https://data.apps.fao.org/catalog//iso/7707086d-af3c-41cc-8aa5-323d8609b2d1 **Contact points:** Metadata Contact: [AQUASTAT](mailto:aquastat@fao.org) Resource Contact: [AQUASTAT](mailto:aquastat@fao.org) **Data lineage:** The majority of the linework of the map was obtained by delineating drainage basin boundaries from hydrologically corrected elevation data with a resolution of 15 arc-seconds. The elevation dataset was part of a mapping product, **HydroSHEDS**, developed by the Conservation Science Program of World Wildlife Fund. Original input data had been obtained during NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Areas north of the SRTM extent, 60 degrees N, were obtained by merging with the HYDRO1k basin layer. **Resource constraints:** This product "Major hydrological basins of the world" incorporates data from the **HydroSHEDS** database which is © World Wildlife Fund, Inc. (2006-2013) and has been used herein under license. WWF has not evaluated the data as altered and incorporated within the "Major hydrological basins of the world dataset", and therefore gives no warranty regarding its accuracy, completeness, currency or suitability for any particular purpose. **Online resources:** Download - Major hydrological basins of the world (ESRI shapefile) Portions of the HydroSHEDS database incorporate data which are the intellectual property rights of © USGS (2006-2008), NASA (2000-2005), ESRI (1992-1998), CIAT (2004-2006), UNEP-WCMC (1993), WWF (2004), Commonwealth of Australia (2007), and Her Royal Majesty and the British Crown and are used under license. HydroSHEDS dataset download and technical information Major rivers of the world

This dataset is the updated version of FAO's Major Hydrological Basins of the World dataset, published earlier in this catalog (https://data.apps.fao.org/catalog//iso/7707086d-af3c-41cc-8aa5-323d8609b2d1) The dataset is included as part of Geo-Spatial Information collected and published in the framework of the AQUASTAT - programme of the Land and Water Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. https://www.fao.org/aquastat/ **Data publication:** 2025-05-02 **Data revision:** 2026-08-31 **Citation:** Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Land and Water Division. Major hydrological basins of the world, Major hydrological basins v2 (Global - 2026) - AQUASTAT, Latest update: 13/04/2026. Accessed (dd-mm/yy) from: https://data.apps.fao.org/catalog/dataset/d617520f-7ce4-4e54-ac2c-c550cd764a6b **Contact points:** Resource Contact: [AQUASTAT](mailto:aquastat@fao.org) Metadata Contact: [AQUASTAT](mailto:aquastat@fao.org) **Data lineage:** This product incorporates data from the HydroSHEDS database (https://www.hydrosheds.org/) which is © World Wildlife Fund, Inc. (2006-2013) and has been used herein under license. WWF has not evaluated the data as altered and incorporated within the "Major hydrological basins of the world dataset", and therefore gives no warranty regarding its accuracy, completeness, currency or suitability for any particular purpose. Recent data review has resulted in the correction of minor topology errors. **Resource constraints:** This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC-BY-4.0) **Online resources:** Download the data from Google Cloud Storage

Global network of major rivers derived from HydroSHEDS at 15 arc-second resolution. Includes all rivers with a catchment area above the threshold for major streams, with attributes for river name, stream order, and basin affiliation. Use this layer for global hydrological analysis, international river basin governance, and continental-scale water resource mapping. No additional information provided.