Skip to content

This is version 1.0, an earlier release, kept for the papers and datasets that cite it. The current release is version 1.1. When the paper is accepted, 1.1 takes its place here; this page and the Zenodo record stay, marked as superseded.

Where does this pixel drain to?

Every land pixel carries the ID of the basin it drains to, so the answer is read from the basin-ID raster, not traced: all 22.26 billion land pixels are assigned, and every pixel of a basin shares one outlet. The example basin below carries the flow directions themselves. Click any pixel and the page follows them, neighbour to neighbour, until the water reaches the outlet.

Global map(unavailable)Example basin (pixel-level)
Global map(unavailable)Not available in a browser: this answer exists at every one of the 22.26 billion land pixels, far more than a web map can draw. The pixel-level rasters are in the Zenodo archive. A browsable version arrives at reach level with FullRiver.
Example basin (pixel-level)Basin 8595, 729 km²: click any pixel and follow the flow directions to the outlet
Example basin 8595 · 729 km² · Fujian, China

Follow the water from any pixel to the outlet

The basin mask says which basin a pixel belongs to. The flow-direction raster says which of a pixel’s eight neighbours the water moves to next. Click anywhere inside the basin on the map: the page steps from neighbour to neighbour until the water stops moving, and every starting point ends at the same pixel — the outlet of basin 8595. This runs entirely in your browser, on the flow directions for this one basin.

Flow path from the clicked pixel

Click a pixel inside the basin. Loading the flow directions…
Basin 8595river network (upstream area ≥ 1 km²)
traced flow path
outlet of basin 8595
Site under development — for browsing only, not for download yet. Some results are still being recomputed with refined methods, so the files here may still be replaced. Any changes to the results are small refinements, not major revisions. When this notice is gone, the files are final and ready to download. The version described in the paper is archived on Zenodo and does not change. Comments are welcome: lulu_jiang@pku.edu.cn