Patterns of river width and surface area revealed by the satellite-derived North American River Width data set

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 >2.4 × 105 km of rivers wider than 30 m 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 (r2 > 0.99 for 100–2000 m widths) to narrower rivers and streams. We conservatively estimate the total surface area of North American rivers as 1.24−0.15+0.39 × 105 km2 (1σ confidence intervals), values 20−15+38% greater than previous estimates used to evaluate greenhouse gas efflux from rivers to the atmosphere. Key Points NARWidth is the first fine‐scale continental river width survey at mean flow DEM‐derived river width data sets underestimate the abundance of wide rivers Total surface area of North American rivers is greater than previously estimated