A dataset of lake-catchment characteristics for the Tibetan Plateau (v1.0)

Lakes collect runoff, sediment and nutrients from upstream watersheds and are an important "destination" of material migration at the watershed scale. Therefore, the attributes of lake water and sediment are affected by catchment attributes (e.g. climate, terrain and vegetation conditions) to a large degree. This dataset delineates the watershed boundaries of 1525 Lakes (with an area from 0.2 to 4503 square kilometers) on the Tibetan Plateau, and calculates 721 catchment-scale attributes on the aspects of lake body, terrain, climate, vegetation, soil/geology and anthropogenic activities. This is the first dataset of lake-catchment characteristics on the Tibetan Plateau, which can provide foundamental data for the study of lakes in the Tibetan Plateau.