Introduction

This appendix contains our global database for which we have divided the globe into seven broad regions, North America (along with Central America), South America, Africa, Europe, Eurasia, Asia (including, for ease of graphical presentation, Russia), and Oceania (Appendix Figure A.1). The broad regions are subdivided into even smaller areas (44 in total), each represented by a series of three maps and, in tabular form, the characteristics of rivers within each region; all 1534 rivers within the database empty into the coastal ocean.

Some of the 44 areas encompass a single country (e.g. Mexico, Australia); others encompass a number of smaller countries (e.g. Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama; Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, and Benin). North and Central America are represented by eight areas (Canada; USA conterminous; USA Alaska; Hawaii and Fiji; Mexico; Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras; Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama; Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico), South America by five (Colombia and Venezuela; Ecuador and Peru; Chile and Argentina; Brazil; French Guiana, Suriname, and Guyana), Africa by eight (Egypt, Libya, and Sudan; Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Western Sahara; Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia; Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, and Benin; Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of the Congo; Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola; Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, and Madagascar; Tanzania, Kenya, and Somalia), Europe by ten (Iceland; Scandinavia; Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland; Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands; United Kingdom; France; Portugal and Spain; Italy; Albania, Croatia, and Greece; Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine), Eurasia by three (Georgia and Turkey; Israel and Lebanon; Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, and Iran), Asia by six (Russia; Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh; Malaysia, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam; China; Taiwan; Japan and Korea), and Oceania by four (Philippines; Indonesia and Papua New Guinea; Australia; New Zealand).