Caravan-Qual: A global scale integration of stream water quality observations into a large-sample hydrology dataset
2026-05-02
Protecting and improving surface water quality is contingent upon understanding the trends and spatial patterns in physical, biological, and chemical conditions and their underlying drivers. This requires observational data, spanning a diverse range of water quality constituents, coupled with contextual environmental data. Here we present the first global-scale integration of stream water quality into large-sample hydrology (named Caravan-Qual ), combining ~96 million observations of 100 constituents with streamflow measurements, meteorological forcing and catchment attributes covering the period 1980–2025. We envisage that the dataset can facilitate a diverse range of empirical analyses (e.g. spatio-temporal analysis across diverse regions, quantification of pollutant loadings and exports, concentration-discharge analysis), in addition to supporting development and evaluation of process-based and data-driven models for water quality prediction and management.