Data sources and licences
Every dataset River Monitor uses, what it is used for, and its licence. Licence wording should be re-checked by Luke before go-live. 'Check' marks terms we have not confirmed in writing.
| Source | Used for | Pages | Licence | Attribution | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copernicus Sentinel-1 (SAR) ESA / European Union, via Microsoft Planetary Computer | Monthly reservoir water area (VV backscatter, Otsu threshold inside JRC mask) | /dams, /dry-season-outlook, /monthly-reports | Copernicus Sentinel data licence (free, full and open) | Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2017–2026] | in use |
| Copernicus Sentinel-2 (optical) ESA / European Union, via Microsoft Planetary Computer | Cross-check of water extent where cloud-free | /methods | Copernicus Sentinel data licence | Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data | in use |
| Copernicus DEM GLO-30 ESA / DLR / Airbus | Level and storage estimates from water area | /dams | Copernicus DEM licence (free use with attribution) | Produced using Copernicus WorldDEM-30 © DLR e.V. 2010–2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014–2018, provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA | in use (check wording) |
| JRC Global Surface Water European Commission Joint Research Centre | Water masks for reservoir mapping | /methods | Free with citation: Pekel et al. (2016), Nature 540, 418–422 | © EC JRC / Google | in use |
| SWOT LakeSP / RiverSP (Hydrocron) NASA/JPL and CNES via NASA PO.DAAC | Water-surface elevation checks | /dams | NASA Earth science data: open, no restriction on use (cite products) | SWOT data courtesy NASA/JPL and CNES | in use |
| MRC PMFM public dashboard Mekong River Commission | Daily water level and rated discharge at 8 mainstream gauges (low-flow tracker, pulses, outlook) | /low-flow, /dry-season-outlook, /monthly-reports | MRC terms of use for public data (check: redistribution terms not yet confirmed in writing) | Data: Mekong River Commission (MRC), PMFM public dashboard | in use (public pages only; no login-gated data) |
| MRC basin facts Mekong River Commission | Population, fisheries and protein figures on the impact page | /impact | Cited facts from public web pages | Source: MRC | in use |
| NASA GPM IMERG V07 NASA GES DISC | Daily catchment rainfall (primary since v2.6) | /rainfall | NASA open data, no restriction (cite) | Huffman et al., GPM IMERG V07, NASA GES DISC | in use |
| ERA5 reanalysis Copernicus Climate Change Service, via Open-Meteo | Rainfall gap-fill and comparison | /rainfall | CC BY 4.0 (Open-Meteo); Copernicus licence | Weather data by Open-Meteo.com; Copernicus C3S ERA5 | in use (fallback) |
| GloFAS v4 Copernicus Emergency Management Service, via Open-Meteo Flood API | Modelled discharge comparison only | /methods | CC BY 4.0 | Copernicus EMS GloFAS via Open-Meteo | comparison only |
| HydroBASINS v1c HydroSHEDS (Lehner & Grill 2013) | Catchment outlines | /basin | HydroSHEDS licence (free, attribution) | Lehner & Grill (2013), Hydrological Processes 27(15) | in use |
| OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap contributors | Base map tiles | /map, / | ODbL; tiles under OSMF tile usage policy | © OpenStreetMap contributors | in use (move to a paid tile provider before heavy use) |
| Stimson Center Mekong Dam Monitor Stimson Center | Internal accuracy checks only | — | Not licensed for redistribution. Nothing served; STIMSON switch off | Not shown publicly | internal only, switched off |
Software
- FastAPI: MIT
- Leaflet: BSD-2-Clause
- Chart.js: MIT
- axe-core (audit tool, not served): MPL-2.0
See also methods, attributions and what's new.