Development of a large-sample catchment-scale hydro-meteorological, land cover and physical dataset for Chile

We provide the first catchment-based hydrometeorological, vegetation and physical data set over 531 catchments in Chile (17.8 S - 55.0 S). We compiled publicly available streamflow records at daily time steps for the period 1980-2015, and generated basin-averaged time series of the following hydrometeorological variables: 1) daily precipitation coming from three different gridded sources (re-analysis and satellite-based); 2) daily maximum and minimum temperature; 3) 8-days potential evapotranspiration (PET) based on MODIS imagery and daily PET based on Hargreaves formula; and 4) daily snow water equivalent. Additionally, catchments are characterized by their main physical (area, mean elevation, mean slope) and land cover characteristics. We synthetized these datasets with several indices characterizing the spatial distribution of climatic, hydrological, topographic and vegetation attributes. The new catchment-based dataset is unprecedented in the region and provides information that can be used in a myriad of applications, including catchment classification and regionalization studies, impacts of different land cover types on catchment response, characterization of drought history and projections, climate change impacts on hydrological processes, etc. Derived practical applications include water management and allocation strategies, decision making and adaptation planning to climate change. This data set will be publicly available and we encourage the community to use it.