Development of a pan-European River and Catchment Database

The availability of digital data on river networks, lakes and associated catchments and their characteristics is important for the analysis of environmental pressures and their impact on our water resources. The analysis of digital elevation data in combination with other geo-physical data allows deriving at least part of the required information over extended areas. This chapter presents a new approach making use of medium resolution digital elevation data (250 m grid-cell size) and information on climate, vegetation cover, terrain morphology, soils and lithology to derive river networks and catchment boundaries for the entire European continent. The methodology has been implemented for the pan-European area. Results are validated comparing the derived data with independent reference data at varying scales. The resulting database is known as CCM River and Catchment Database, version 1.0. A second version, based on the SRTM DEM as well as on water classes derived from Image 2000 TM data is currently under preparation and should be released in 2005.

VOGT Juergen;  SOILLE Pierre;  COLOMBO Roberto;  PARACCHINI Maria-Luisa;  DE JAGER Alfred; 

2006-02-17

Geological Institute of Hungary

JRC31215

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC31215,