The River Runner Global Edition

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In December I named Sam Learner's incredible River Runner as my favorite interactive map of 2021.I am delighted to say that Sam (and team) has now released a global version of his amazing map.

River Runner was originally released in May of last year. This interactive map allows you to click anywhere in the United States to view the path that a drop of rain would take downstream to the sea. The US River Runner map uses Mapbox's elevation data and the USGS's national hydrology data to calculate and animate this incredible journey of a single drop of water from any location in the USA to the sea. 

River Runner Global allows you to virtually drop a raindrop anywhere in the world to visualize its journey to the sea. This means that you can now select any location in the world to watch an animated map journey that a raindrop would take from that location downstream to the sea. In order to work worldwide River Runner Global uses the MERIT-Basins global vector hydrography dataset. The map also uses Natural Earth data for the river name labels.

You can read more about the development of River Runner Global here.This 'about' page includes information on how to download the river name data and how to clone and deploy the River Runner API.The River Runner Global team has also compiled a list of some of their favorite raindrop paths. River Runner Global Paths includes links to over 20 animated journeys, showing how a drop of water would travel from locations around the world - downstream to the sea.