Datasets and codes for "Environmental Controls on Spatial Variability in Catchment Transit Times: A Global Cross-study Synthesis"

A global compilation of catchment water transit times and the environmental attributes needed to interpret them. The dataset brings together 517 published estimates of mean transit time (246) and young water fraction (271) from 21 studies, covering 314 catchments worldwide, 58 of which carry both metrics. Each estimate retains the methodological metadata that makes cross-study comparison possible: the tracer used, the modelling approach, the assumed transit-time distribution, and the monitoring period. Every catchment is paired with 38 environmental characteristics extracted consistently from global products, spanning hydroclimate, topography, soil, geology, and land use and land cover, together with its delineated boundary and snapped outlet. Variables are provided both in native units and on the transformed, standardised scale used for modelling, with the transformation parameters included so either can be reconstructed. The archive also contains the complete analysis pipeline: a three-stage mixed-effects framework that separates environmental controls on transit time from the methodological choices made by the original studies, with all intermediate results and the code that regenerates every figure and table of the accompanying paper-"Environmental Controls on Spatial Variability in Catchment Transit Times: A Global Cross-study Synthesis", which aims to submit to the Water Resource Research. In "Dataset" subfolder, it includes two analysis-ready panels (CSV), the source compilation and environmental predictors in native units (XLSX), catchment boundaries and outlets (GeoPackage and shapefile), with a data dictionary describing every column. In the "Code" subfolder, it includes multiple pieces of R scripts with a documented function library for data exploring and analysis, associated with the paper's methods. The output and figures asscociated with the paper are in the "Output" subfolder. The "README.txt" introduce the data structure and content.
Type
collection
Title
Datasets and codes for "Environmental Controls on Spatial Variability in Catchment Transit Times: A Global Cross-study Synthesis"
Collection Type
Dataset
Access Privileges
School of Computing
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
10.25911/t40g-n618
Metadata Language
English
Data Language
English
Significance Statement
The first complied global dataset of the catchment mean transit time (MTT) and young water fraction (Fyw) for 314 catchments covered from exsiting literature.
Full Description
A global compilation of catchment water transit times and the environmental attributes needed to interpret them. The dataset brings together 517 published estimates of mean transit time (246) and young water fraction (271) from 21 studies, covering 314 catchments worldwide, 58 of which carry both metrics. Each estimate retains the methodological metadata that makes cross-study comparison possible: the tracer used, the modelling approach, the assumed transit-time distribution, and the monitoring period. Every catchment is paired with 38 environmental characteristics extracted consistently from global products, spanning hydroclimate, topography, soil, geology, and land use and land cover, together with its delineated boundary and snapped outlet. Variables are provided both in native units and on the transformed, standardised scale used for modelling, with the transformation parameters included so either can be reconstructed. The archive also contains the complete analysis pipeline: a three-stage mixed-effects framework that separates environmental controls on transit time from the methodological choices made by the original studies, with all intermediate results and the code that regenerates every figure and table of the accompanying paper-"Environmental Controls on Spatial Variability in Catchment Transit Times: A Global Cross-study Synthesis", which aims to submit to the Water Resource Research. In "Dataset" subfolder, it includes two analysis-ready panels (CSV), the source compilation and environmental predictors in native units (XLSX), catchment boundaries and outlets (GeoPackage and shapefile), with a data dictionary describing every column. In the "Code" subfolder, it includes multiple pieces of R scripts with a documented function library for data exploring and analysis, associated with the paper's methods. The output and figures asscociated with the paper are in the "Output" subfolder. The "README.txt" introduce the data structure and content.
Contact Email
xiao.shen@anu.edu.au
Contact Address
Australian National University
Supervisors
Danlu Guo
Collaborators
Ian Cartwright; Andrew W. Western
Fields of Research
3707 - Hydrology; 370704 - Surface water hydrology
Socio-Economic Objective
1803 - Fresh, ground and surface water systems and management; 180301 - Assessment and management of freshwater ecosystems; 180308 - Surface water quantification, allocation and impact of depletion
Keywords
transit time; water resource; catchment characteristics; linear mixed-effect models
Type of Research Activity
Applied Research
Date Coverage
2000
2025
Date of data creation
2026-10-06
Year of data publication
2026
Creator(s) for Citation
Xiao
Shen
Publisher for Citation
The Australian National University Data Commons
Publications
doi
Access Rights
Open Access allowed
Access Rights Type
Open
Licence Type
CC-BY - Attribution (Version 4)
Retention Period
Indefinitely
Data Size
100 MB
Data Management Plan
No
Related external grants and projects
arc
DP230100618
isOutputOf

Download data files

Number of files: 91

Size: 95.3 MB

Identifier: anudc:6531

Status: Published
Published to:
  • Australian National University
  • Australian National Data Service
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