Geographic distribution of land-water interface in Europe

Related Publication: Xiang Liu et al. (2026) Increasing land take in Europe's land-water interface. (in preprint)

Class Description

We mapped the land-water interface at 30-m resolution which include three main classes: river LWI (blue), lake LWI (green), coast LWI (yellow). In addition, we provided a density map of land-water interface in 3-km resolution.

Definition

We defined the land-water interface as the dynamic zone in which terrestrial and aquatic systems interact most closely. On the water side, the land-water interface covers the shallow edges close to the land area, including areas that are only seasonally exposed to water, such as shoreline marshes, reed beds, and mud and sandflats. On the land side, the land-water interface is the low-lying terrestrial area that stays connected to the adjacent river, lake, or ocean water body through spatial proximity and/or because floods, back-flow, or groundwater connect these areas (e.g., floodplains, deltas, and seasonally inundated lowlands).

Data Availability

The data layers are displayed here with limited zoom-in capability due to processing constraints.
The raw data are maintained at the Conservation Biogeography Lab, Geography Department of Humboldt-University Berlin.
Please contact Xiang Liu or take a look at the project Github for more information.



Webmapping: Ruben Butzer
Last Update: 03.03.2026