This database, compiled by Matthews and Fung (1987), provides information on the distribution and environmental characteristics of natural wetlands. The database was developed to evaluate the role of wetlands in the annual emission of methane from terrestrial sources. The original data consists of five global 1-degree latitude by 1-degree longitude arrays. The subset retains all five arrays at the 1-degree resolution but only for the area of interest. The arrays are (1) wetland data source, (2) wetland type, (3) fractional inundation, (4) vegetation type, and (5) soil type. The data subsets are in both ASCII GRID and binary image file formats.
The data base is the result of the integration of three independent digital sources: (1) vegetation classified according to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) system (Matthews, 1983), (2) soil properties from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) soil maps (Zobler, 1986), and (3) fractional inundation in each 1-degree cell compiled from a global map survey of Operational Navigation Charts (ONC). With vegetation, soil, and inundation characteristics of each wetland site identified, the data base has been used for a coherent and systematic estimate of methane emissions from wetlands and for an analysis of the causes for uncertainties in the emission estimate.
The complete global data base is available from NASA/GISS [http://www.giss.nasa.gov] and NCAR data set ds765.5 [http://www.ncar.ucar.edu]; the global vegetation types data are available from ORNL DAAC [http://www.daac.ornl.gov].
More information can be found at: http://daac.ornl.gov/daacdata/safari2k/vegetation_wetlands/giss_wetlands/comp/matt_fung_readme.pdf.
Cite this data set as follows:
Matthews, E., and I. Fung. 2002. SAFARI 2000 Wetlands Data Set, 1-Deg (Matthews and Fung). Data set. Available on-line [http://www.daac.ornl.gov] from Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A. doi:10.3334/ORNLDAAC/632.
Matthews, E. 1983. Global vegetation and land use: New high-resolution data bases for climate studies. Journal of Climatology and Applied Meteorology 22:474-487.
Matthews, E. 1989. Global Data Bases on Distribution, Characteristics and Methane Emission of Natural Wetlands: Documentation of Archived Data Tape. NASA TM-4153. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
Matthews, E., and I. Fung. 1987. Methane emissions from natural wetlands: Global distribution, area and environmental characteristics of sources. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 1: 61-86.
Zobler, L. 1986. A world soil file for global climate modeling. NASA Technical Memorandum 87802.
Information about the ASCII GRID and binary image file formats, monitoring stations, and the procedure used to create the southern African subset are in the following file: http://daac.ornl.gov/daacdata/safari2k/vegetation_wetlands/giss_wetlands/comp/matt_fung_readme.pdf.