JRC Global Surface Water — Occurrence (EC Joint Research Centre / Google)
Where surface water shows up over 1984–2021 — a 37-year satellite frequency record of rivers, lakes, wetlands, and ponds, at 30m globally.
What this is
JRC Global Surface Water (Occurrence product, v1.4) maps how often surface water was present at each 30m pixel across 1984–2021, derived from the full Landsat 5/7/8 archive. Each pixel is a percentage: the share of valid satellite observations in which water was seen — 100% is permanent water (rivers, lakes, reservoirs, coastlines), lower values are seasonal or intermittent water. UFFDA serves it as a map overlay: a blues ramp tiled on demand from the JRC GeoTIFFs on public Google Cloud Storage, appearing once you zoom into a local view. It's orientation context — a long-run picture of where water tends to be, not a live or this-season reading. Per-field water stats are a possible follow-up; not wired yet.
Why we surface it
Knowing where water reliably sits — a river bend, a wetland edge, a pond that's there most years — is field context that soil and crop layers can't show. As a 37-year frequency it cuts through any single wet or dry year, so it reads as the durable shape of water on the land: the places water tends to claim.
What you can do with it
Shown for commercial use. Personal, research, and nonprofit use is often more permissive — switch the verdict lens on the catalog.
- Internal / individual use
- Custom or restrictive terms — we can't auto-decode this one. Read the source agreement before using, especially for commercial use, AI training, and redistribution. When in doubt, ask the provider.
- Redistribute the data
- Custom or restrictive terms — we can't auto-decode this one. Read the source agreement before using, especially for commercial use, AI training, and redistribution. When in doubt, ask the provider.
- Republish a derivative
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- Build into a private product
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This decoder is a starting point, not legal advice. For commercial deployment, run the actual license terms past someone who reads them for a living.
Good to know
Not a flood map or a ground survey — informational context only.
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