FAO Major River Basins
FAO Major River Basins provides global river basin and sub-basin boundaries from the FAO AQUASTAT program, supporting watershed management and hydrological modeling.
Format
Shapefile / GeoJSON
Geometry
Polygons
Coverage
Global
Resolution
N/A (basin boundaries)
About this dataset
Global major river basin boundaries and sub-basin delineations from FAO, useful for watershed and drainage analysis.
The FAO Major River Basins dataset provides global major river basin boundaries and sub-basin delineations as part of the FAO AQUASTAT geospatial data collection. It defines the extent and hierarchy of the world's major drainage basins, supporting watershed management, hydrological modeling, and transboundary water resource analysis.
How to download
- 1 Visit the FAO AQUASTAT geospatial data page.
- 2 Locate the Major River Basins dataset.
- 3 Download the shapefile or GeoJSON file.
- 4 Open in GeoDataViewer or QGIS to explore basin boundaries and sub-basin hierarchies.
FAQ
What is the difference between major basins and sub-basins?
Major basins represent the largest-scale drainage areas (e.g., the Amazon Basin), while sub-basins are nested subdivisions useful for more localized watershed analysis within a major basin.
How does this compare to HydroSHEDS?
FAO Major River Basins provides basin boundary polygons at a generalized scale, while HydroSHEDS offers higher-resolution flow direction, accumulation, and streamline data derived from SRTM elevation models.