2. Download Open Data from HydroSHEDS

Let's first download the open data layers that we need from HydroSHEDS.

1. Open an internet browser and go to https://www.hydrosheds.org/.


2. Click Explore the data.

3. Click on HydroBASINS.


4. Scroll down and download the data for your continent of interest. Use the dataset that is Customized (with lakes). Here we'll proceed with Europe.

5. After downloading, unzip the file to the folder on your hard drive where you're going to store the data for this project (note that file and folder names should not contain spaces, minus or other strange characters, which can cause unexpected errors).

6. Next go to the HydroRIVERS page.

7. Download the shapefile for the continent that you'll focus on. Here we'll use Europe and Middle East.


8. Also unzip this downloaded zip file to the folder where you'll work for this project.

9. Open QGIS Desktop with a new project.

10. Go to the Browser panel and drag hybas_lake_eu_lev04_v1c.shp to the map canvas.

11. Do the same for HydroRIVERS_v10_eu.shp.

Now we have the data we can start styling in the next section.