Terrestrial water data synthesis for hydrological catchments around the world in the Anthropocene

We here synthesise hydro-climatic data reported by previous studies for 65 hydrological catchments around the world [1-7] for further meta-analysis of how water fluxes of precipitation (P), runoff (R), and actual evapotranspiration (ET) on land change in the Anthropocene epoch, from before to after its start in the 1950's [8]. These water flux changes alter how much water ends up sustaining crops and other plants (evapotranspiration) and how much remains for the lateral water flows (runoff) through the landscape and the societal water uses and ecosystems they support. How this partitioning changes as integral part of global change is key for water and food security, and life on land and below water around the world’s land areas and coasts. 

To distinguish the impacts of direct human drivers on evapotranspiration and runoff changes based on instrumental data for wide-ranging water, human-activity and climate conditions around the world, the 65 study catchments are divided in two comparative sets. One set includes 52 large catchments, selected from two previous data compilations and studies [1,2] and is in the data files referred to as the world set of catchments. The study periods are 1901–2008 for 21 [2] and 1930–1979 for the other 31 [1] of these catchments. The second set includes 13 catchments selected from previous studies [3-7] of both the water flux changes and associated dominant human drivers of these for time periods that are largely consistent with those for the world set of catchments (within 1901-2016); this is in the data files referred to as the known human-shifted set of catchments. The dominant direct human drivers of water-flux changes in these catchments include expanded/intensified rainfed agriculture (RA), irrigated agriculture (IA), or dams and reservoirs for engineered flow regulation (FR), as listed and cited for each known human-shifted catchment in the data files. 

For each study catchment, we have quantified and report in the data files long-term average P, R and ET values over the total study period and changes in period-average values between two subperiods within it. The subperiods are 1901–1954 and 1955–2008 for 21 [2], and 1930–1954 and 1955–1979 for the other 31 [1] world catchments, and largely consistent for the known human-shifted catchments [3-7] (as listed in the data files). Each study catchment is also classified as water or energy limited by quantifying the associated Budyko-based aridity index PET/P, where PET is potential evapotranspiration. Average PET is estimated as PET≈325+21T+0.9T² where T is long-term annual and catchment average surface temperature in °C, calculated from monthly temperature data in the previous catchment studies [1-7]. The resulting PET/P index classifies actual ET/P in each catchment as energy limited for average PET/P < 1 or water limited for average PET/P > 1, as listed in the data files.

Other catchment information included in the data files, uploaded in both pdf and xlsx formats, include source references, catchment name, area and station ID and continent and latitude location. Overall, this dataset provides a wide-ranging sample of catchment-wise related, water balance-constrained local-regional changes in average P, R and ET under major RA, IA, FR developments (known for the second human-shifted set of catchments [3-7]) and various other human-activity and climate developments around the world from before to after the Anthropocene start in the 1950’s [8].