Delta Hydro

Global Watersheds

Active

Click anywhere on earth, get the upstream watershed in seconds — free delineation in the browser.

Pricing
Free
License
Commercial use
Check licence
Ecosystem
Browser
Platform
Web

About Global Watersheds

Global Watersheds (mghydro.com) delineates the upstream catchment and downstream flow path from any point on earth, in the browser, in about a second — built on the MERIT-Hydro global hydrography dataset. Results export as shapefile, GeoJSON or KML, and a free API serves programmatic requests.

Accuracy inherits MERIT-Hydro's ~90 m resolution, so it is a screening and communication tool, not a design deliverable — but for "how big is the catchment above this bridge" moments, teaching, and proposal figures, nothing is faster. A genuinely useful free service by Matthew Heberger.

Where it fits in the workflow

TerrainCatchmentRainfallRunoffRoutingHydraulicsMappingReporting

Alternatives to Global Watersheds

Other geospatial & hydro-gis tools covering similar workflow stages.

QGIS logo

QGIS

Open SourceVerified

The free, open-source GIS that has become the default spatial platform for water engineers worldwide.

Geospatial & Hydro-GISActiveQGIS HydrologyTerrain Analysis
WhiteboxTools logo

WhiteboxTools

Open SourceVerified

500+ fast geospatial analysis tools with the best DEM hydrology toolkit in open source.

Geospatial & Hydro-GISActiveDEM ProcessingTerrain Analysis

JAXA's 30m global DSM from PRISM stereo imagery — a strong third opinion alongside SRTM and Copernicus DEM.

Geospatial & Hydro-GISStableSatellite DEM DataDEM Processing

ASTER GDEM

Gov-Public

A 30m global DEM reaching to 83° latitude — the go-to where SRTM/NASADEM have no coverage at all.

Geospatial & Hydro-GISStableSatellite DEM DataDEM Processing

Esri's free hydrology framework for ArcGIS Pro — terrain preprocessing and the data model behind many agency workflows.

Geospatial & Hydro-GISActiveWatershed DelineationDEM Processing

ESA's TanDEM-X-derived global DEM — the most accurate free global surface model available today.

Geospatial & Hydro-GISActiveSatellite DEM DataDEM Processing