Tag Archives: rivers

Which river basins have the most surface area covered by streams and rivers?

July 23, 2018

Also, why would we want to know this?  NASA’s Vital Signs of the Planet feature How wide are the world’s rivers?  by Adam Voiland (7/18/18) answers the questions.

Most scientists who study rivers rely on measures of discharge, the volume of water transported through a given cross-section of a river. Much less studied, though critically important, is a river’s total surface area, particularly for scientists trying to understand how carbon dioxide moves between rivers and the atmosphere.

The work has resulted in a  global database of river widths.  The map here, copied from the post, answers the main question:

The map below shows which river basins have the most surface area covered by streams and rivers. The Brahmaputra River in India and Bangladesh, the Amazon in Brazil, and the Lena in Russia are among the widest rivers—and the river networks with the largest surface areas.

Along with the river widths database the article also links to global network of stream gauges for river discharge data.