Host: Japan Society of Hydrology and Water Resources
We have developed the global basins database (GBDB). GBDB includes the drainage basins map which consists of polygons of catchments which are subdivisions of basins into elementary drainage areas. Each polygon of a basin is identified by a Pfafstetter code and is attributed with geographic, topographic, and social information. The drainage basins map were generated from digital elevation models of which natural depressions are manually identified and which are modified by the methods of "stream burning" and "ridge fencing". We used the stream data and the basin data modified by collected data, atlases, and basin maps in the procedures of "stream burning" and "ridge fencing". We had two comparisons to verify the accuracy of the drainage basins map of GBDB. We compared the drainage basins map of GBDB with collected basin data, and the calculated upstream areas with the reported ones at river discharge stations. The results of those comparisons reveals that GBDB provides a more accurate and reliable drainage basins map than HYDRO1k database.
