Drainage basin morphometry: a global snapshot from the shuttle radar topography mission

Abstract. A suite of 42 morphometric parameters for each of 26 272 drainage basins larger than 100 km² from the Hydrosheds Shuttle Radar Topography digital elevation model shows the global distribution of Strahler order for streams and drainage basins. At the scale of 15 arc s spacing (232 to 464 m) the largest basins are order 9. Many common parameters depend both on the size of the basin, and the scale of the digital elevation model used for the computations. These drainage basins display the typical longitudinal stream profiles, but the major basins tend to be generally more concave than the smaller basins.