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8038973 
Journal Article 
Patterns of river width and surface area revealed by the satellite-derived North American River Width data set 
Allen, GH; Pavelsky, TM 
2015 
Yes 
Geophysical Research Letters
ISSN: 0094-8276
EISSN: 1944-8007 
42 
2 
395-402 
WOS:000349956000027 
As hydraulic, hydrologic, and biogeochemical models evolve toward greater spatial resolution and larger extent, robust morphometric data sets are essential to constrain their results. Here we present the Landsat-derived North American River Width (NARWidth) data set, the first fine-resolution, continental scale river centerline and width database. NARWidth contains measurements of >2.4x10(5)km of rivers wider than 30m at mean annual discharge. We find that conventional digital elevation model-derived width data sets underestimate the abundance of wide rivers. To calculate the total surface area of North American rivers, we extrapolate the strong observed relationship between river width and total surface area at different river widths (r(2)>0.99 for 100-2000m widths) to narrower rivers and streams. We conservatively estimate the total surface area of North American rivers as 1.24-0.15+0.39x10(5)km(2) (1 sigma confidence intervals), values 20-15+38% greater than previous estimates used to evaluate greenhouse gas efflux from rivers to the atmosphere. 
fluvial geomorphology; river width; river surface area; river channels; remote sensing; hydrologic scaling