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SRTM Water Bodies (North West, one of six data sets) represents the lakes, rivers, and ocean areas within the SRTM coverage area (between 60 degrees North and 56 degrees South latitude) of the world. All SRTM elevation values within lakes and ocean areas were set to be a constant elevation for that feature. Elevation values within river areas were set to insure the proper flow direction. The primary source for these water features was a Landsat 5-based landcover water layer supplemented with medium-scale maps and charts.

SRTM Water Bodies provides the geographic extent of where the original SRTM elevation values were altered to more accurately represent water surface areas within the data set. These data can also be used for cartographic display.

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The shapefile is converted to SDC (Smart Data Compression) format using either ESRI SDC Data Development Kit Professional 2 (DDKP2) or tools in ArcGIS. The SDC data set is then loaded into ArcSDEr to verify and validate the geometry.

The SRTM Water Body Data files are a by-product of the data editing performed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to produce the finished SRTM Digital Terrain Elevation Data Level 2 (DTEDr 2). In accordance with the DTED 2 specification, the terrain elevation data have been edited to portray water bodies that meet minimum capture criteria. Ocean, lake and river shorelines were identified and delineated. Lake elevations were set to a constant value. Ocean elevations were set to zero. Rivers were stepped down monotonically to maintain proper flow. After this processing was done, the shorelines from the one arc second (approx. 30-meter) DTED 2 were saved as vectors in ESRI 3-D Shapefile format. In most cases, two orthorectified image mosaics (one for ascending passes and one for descending passes) at a one arc second resolution were available for identifying water bodies and delineating shorelines in each 1 by 1 cell. These were used as the primary source for water body editing. The guiding principle for this editing was that water must be depicted as it was in February 2000 at the time of the shuttle flight. A Landcover water layer and medium-scale maps and charts were used as supplemental data sources, generally as supporting evidence for water identified in the image mosaics. Since the Landcover water layer was derived mostly from Landsat 5 data collected a decade earlier than the Shuttle mission and the map sources had similar currency problems, there were significant seasonal and temporal differences between the depiction of water in the ancillary sources and the actual extent of water bodies in February 2000 in many instances. In rare cases, where the SRTM image mosaics were missing or unusable, Landcover was used to delineate the water in the SRTM cells. The DTED header records for those cells are documented accordingly. Two documents are provided to describe the details of the data editing and the SRTM Water Body Data files: a. SRTM Water Body Data Product Specific Guidance (version 2.0, Mar. 12, 2003). (Online linkage: http://edc.usgs.gov/products/elevation/swbdguide.doc) b. SRTM Data Editing Rules (version 2.0, March 12, 2003). (Online linkage: http://edc.usgs.gov/products/elevation/swbdedit.doc)

The following steps were performed by ESRI: Ordered and received the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Water Body Dataset on one DVD (12,229 zipped shapefile datasets) from the U.S. Geological Survey Center for Earth Resource Observation and Science (EROS). Uncompressed all zipped shapefile datasets using the WinZipr 10.0 command line add-on. Created a projection file (WGS 1984) for each water body dataset. Appended all water body shapefiles into regional shapefiles. Each of the regional shapefiles contains the water body data that corresponds to the geographic area covered by the applicable regional SRTM elevation raster dataset. Loaded all appended water body shapefiles into ArcSDE 9.1 feature classes. All features that did not load because of geometry problems were corrected and reloaded. Exported each of the ArcSDE 9.1 feature classes into shapefiles. Clipped each of the regional water body shapefiles to the extent of the applicable regional SRTM elevation raster dataset. Created a feature class containing polygons for those areas in the ocean where there is no SRTM coverage (termed non-SRTM coverage dataset). In order to create smaller ocean polygons, intersected this feature class with the 2006 World Latitude and Longitude Grids (prior to intersecting, converted the 2006 World Latitude and Longitude Grids dataset from line to polygon). The non-SRTM coverage feature class was then clipped into six regional datasets, which were then densified to approximately one degree. Created ArcSDE 9.1 feature classes to store the regional water body data. Added the following attributes to each regional ArcSDE feature class: FACC_CODE, FACC_DESC, ELEV, and COMMENTS. Loaded the following data into the regional ArcSDE 9.1 feature classes: SRTM regional water body datasets, regional non-SRTM coverage datasets, and the regional datasets containing the polygons that represent the voids in the elevation data that are located in the water/land "interface" (i.e. a void that spatially spanned across water and land) where the elevation pixels were set to a constant value (termed "Boat Ramp" features). Prior to loading these features into ArcSDE, each feature had at least an initial FACC_CODE attribute populated and in the case of the "boat ramp" features the ELEV attribute was populated with the elevation value used to set the elevation raster pixels to a constant value. Based on the initial attributes of the water features and the source of the data, calculated the attributes to their final values; atypical coding situations and code changes are described in the COMMENTS attribute. Converted the six ArcSDE regional SRTM water body feature classes to Smart Data Compression (SDC) format. Created ArcGISr layer files (.lyr), projection files (.prj), and spatial indices.

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The SDC file contains the geospatial and attribute data. The SDI file contains the spatial index. The PRJ file contains the coordinate system information (optional). The XML file (*.sdc.xml) contains the metadata describing the data set (optional).

SRTM Water Bodies

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