Freshwater Fluxes into the World's Oceans
... presented in the GRDC Freshwater Fluxes into the World's Oceans web application. For a description of input data, computational setting and processing read the report Freshwater Fluxes into the World’s Oceans (published in the Information Series of the Federal Institute for Hydrology (BfG Mitteilungen, 36).
The Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) has published the Freshwater Fluxes into the World's Oceans
since 1995. Since 2009 the computations are based on model results of the continuously developed water balance model WaterGAP (Hydrology Group, University of Frankfurt). The most recent version of the data product includes annual runoff values for the period 1901-2016, broken down in map and table displays by runoff from continents as well as into oceans, 5° and 10° latitude bands, and UNEP GIWA regions. Previous data sets prepared in 2004, 2009 and 2014 are integrated into the service.
The total freshwater input to the World's oceans between 90°N and 60°S is computed to 40181 km³/a. Excluding Greenland, the total is 39693 km³/a. Excluding Caspian Sea, the total is 39828 km³/a.
| Arctic Ocean | Atlantic Ocean | Indian Ocean | Pacific Ocean | Sum Sea* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | 645 | 1989 | - | - | 2634 |
| Asia | 2094 | 139 | 3932 | 6146 | 12311 |
| Africa | - | 3196 | 1001 | - | 4197 |
| Australia | - | - | 203 | 2450 | 2653 |
| North America | 1704 | 2974 | - | 2052 | 6730 |
| South America | - | 10418 | - | 883 | 11301 |
| Sum Land* | 4442 | 18716 | 5139 | 11530 | 39828 |
| * slight deviations due to rounding | |||||
The figure shows the timeseries of annual total freshwater fluxes into the World Ocean from 1901 to 2016 (excluding Greenland). The values range between a minimum of 34573 km³/a (1993) and a maximum of 42947 km³/a (1949). The standard deviation is 1476 km³/a. The Mann-Kendall trend test does not show any significant monotonic trend over the entire period. Looking at subsections, a significant positive trend is found for the period 1901–1950 and a significant negative trend for the period 1951–2000.
Freshwater flux into the World Ocean 1901–2016 (excluding Greenland)
Please cite in your publication the GRDC as the source of the data: Global Freshwater Fluxes into the World's Oceans. Online provided by Global Runoff Data Centre. Koblenz: Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG). URL, date of retrieval.