Mapping and sampling to characterize global inland water dynamics from 1999 to 2018 with full Landsat time-series

Global surface water extent is changing due to natural processes as well as anthropogenic drivers such as reservoir construction and conversion of wetlands to agriculture. However, the extent and change of global inland surface water are not well quantified. To address this, we classified land and water in all 3.4 million Landsat 5, 7, and 8 scenes from 1999 to 2018 and performed a time-series analysis to produce maps that characterize inter-annual and intra-annual open surface water dynamics. We also used a probability sample and reference time-series classification of land and water for 1999–2018 to provide unbiased estimators of area of stable and dynamic surface water extent and to assess the accuracy of…

• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• UG
  U.S. Geological Survey