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A map of high-altitude wetlands in the world's major mountain regions

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Bethan DaviesORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Abstract

We present a first global high-resolution map (30 m x 30 m) of high-altitudinal wetlands in the world’s major mountain regions, i.e. the Andes, Rocky Mountains, Alps and High Mountain Asia. To map these wetlands, we employed a supervised classification approach using a random forest machine learning model and a selected set of predictors including vegetation, topographic, and surface moisture features. The predictors were derived from freely available radar and optical satellite imagery (Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2), SRTM elevation data, and the global ecoregion map RESOLVE. We identify a total area of >30,500 km² of high-mountain wetlands. With this map we aim to enhance the understanding of wetland distribution in remote and often inaccessible mountain regions and enable a more reliable understanding of their role in the ecosystem functioning and water cycles of high mountain areas.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Becker R, Kropacek J, Ross AC, Gribbin T, Drenkhan F, Hernandez Sotelo L, Mendoza M, Davies BJ, Ely J, Buytaert W

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Scientific Data

Year: 2026

Volume: 13

Print publication date: 27/04/2026

Online publication date: 11/03/2026

Acceptance date: 03/03/2026

Date deposited: 08/06/2026

ISSN (electronic): 2052-4463

Publisher: Nature

URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-07020-w

DOI: 10.1038/s41597-026-07020-w

Data Access Statement: Data availability The maps and the code for the classification procedure are stored in a data repository on Zenodo and can freely be downloaded from: https://zenodo.org/records/18339573 The code used to generate and validate the wetland maps is made publicly available under: https://zenodo.org/ records/18339573.

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