Evaluation of Drainage Network Provided by MERIT Hydro: a Database with the Hydrographic Network Available on a Global Scale

Abstract

The river representation map is important in several studies, and it is usually obtained by processing elevation data from the Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The MERIT Hydro is a recently DEM‐derived drainage network that provides the hydrographic network for the entire globe and was obtained by using the information about the position of rivers, lakes, and other water bodies on a global scale. In this sense, this study evaluated the quality of the drainage network provided by MERIT Hydro and compared it with the performance of the drainage network obtained by processing the DEM provided by the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM). For that, a reference drainage network of rivers from the River Uruguai and River São Francisco basins was used. Drainage network length, percentage within the buffer and average distance were selected as metrics to evaluate the performances. The results showed that MERIT Hydro drainage network is more accurate and performed better than the drainage network obtained by processing the DEM from the SRTM.