Published June 18, 2026 | Version v5

High-Resolution Global Streamflow Dataset from 1980 - 2020 for 2.94 Million Rivers Using the Physics-Embedded δHBV2–δMC2 Model

Description

This dataset provides global-scale streamflow simulations generated with the global-scale differentibale, high-resolution δHBV2–δMC2 model, developed by the Multi-scale Hydrology, Processes, and Intelligence (MHPI) team at The Pennsylvania State University, led by Dr. Chaopeng Shen’s Hydrologic Deep Learning and Modeling group. This data is provided as is, and we do not assume any responsibility as a result of the use of this data.

This dataset is a direct outcome of Ji et al. (2025), as described below, and has been continuously maintained and updated by Haoyu Ji. In this version, the training period is from 1980-2020 and we fixed the abnormal lowflow problem . This Zenodo repository provides continent-based simulation files organized by different MERIT zones. 

you can check these two papers for further details and refer to the Zenodo main DOI (10.5281/zenodo.17042358) rather than the HydroShare link when acknowledging the data source:

Ji, Haoyu, Yalan Song, Tadd Bindas, Chaopeng Shen*, Yuan Yang, Ming Pan, Jiangtao Liu, Farshid Rahmani, Ather Abbas, Hylke Beck, Kathryn Lawson and Yoshihide Wada (2025). Distinct hydrologic response patterns and trends worldwide revealed by physics-embedded learning. Nature Communications, doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64367-1

Song, Yalan, Tadd Bindas, Chaopeng Shen*, Haoyu Ji, Wouter J. M. Knoben, Leo Lonzarich, Martyn P. Clark, Jiangtao Liu, Katie van Werkhoven, Sam Lemont, Matthew Denno, Ming Pan, Yuan Yang, Jeremy Rapp, Mukesh Kumar, Farshid Rahmani, Cyril Thébault, Richard Adkins, James Halgren, Trupesh Patel, Arpita Patel, Kamlesh Sawadekar, and Kathryn Lawson (2025). High-resolution national-scale water modeling is enhanced by multiscale differentiable physics-informed machine learning. Water Resources Research, doi: 10.1029/2024WR038928

More information on our research group and publications can be found at www.mhpi.info, and our publicly-available codes are also available on Github at www.github.com/mhpi. A wiki with summaries, benchmarks, and more information is available at https://mhpi.github.io.

To facilitate data access, the global river network has been partitioned into zones based on the MERIT Flowlines framework. Users can download subsets corresponding to their regions of interest. The MERIT basin delineations are available at: https://www.reachhydro.org/home/params/merit-basins.

Note: The model simulates other variables like ET, soil moisture and snow water equivalent, etc., but are not evaluated. If you are interested, please let us know. we can also provide the near-real-time simulation (from 2021 - now) upon request. 

See the README file for more information.

Files

Africa.zip

Files (130.9 GB)

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Additional details

Funding

U.S. National Science Foundation
EAR-Climate: Towards Better Understanding of Global Low Flow Dynamics Under Climate Change With Next-Generation, Differentiable Global Hydrologic Models 2221880
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Cooperative Institute for Research to Operations in Hydrology NA22NWS4320003
United States Army Corps of Engineers
Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations W912HZ-24-2-0001
United States Department of Energy
A highly efficient deep-learning-based parameter estimation and uncertainty reduction framework for ecosystem dynamics models DE-SC0021979
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
SWOT and the global human-hydrologic cycle 80NSSC24K1646