Welcome to the Google Earth Engine tutorial for working with the global surface water (GSW)
dataset. This dataset is described in the Nature letter
[High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes](https://www.nature.com/articles/nature20584.epdf?author_access_token=C5JSvooRop4jWxyp_qRPLNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0MqBuzCNsmw_DFxRd7sX93nfPzcbm_xTiPLlZMl7XrUhadm6EiT9cGdDNgn1s6EWrPWH3IeadLUjApplBoaS6xH).
This tutorial provides examples of how to use Earth Engine to visualize data layers
available in the GSW dataset, and presents some typical visualizations and analyses.

The tutorial is broken up into sections. Within each section, code will be built up
gradually with short code snippets and explanatory text. At the end of each section, the
complete working script will be presented.

## References

- [High-resolution mapping of global surface water and its
  long-term changes](http://rdcu.be/nDd2) (online viewer)
- [Get water governance on the global agenda](http://www.nature.com/news/get-water-governance-on-the-global-agenda-1.21104) (Nature editorial)
- [Global Surface Water Explorer](https://global-surface-water.appspot.com/) (web application)
- [Data Users Guide (v2)](https://storage.googleapis.com/global-surface-water/downloads_ancillary/DataUsersGuidev2.pdf)

## Audience

This tutorial assumes you are familiar with concepts presented in the
[Earth Engine Code Editor](https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/guides/playground)
documentation pages and have worked through the [Earth Engine API tutorial](https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/tutorial_api_01).

## License and Attribution

The GSW data described in this tutorial were produced under the
[Copernicus Programme](http://www.copernicus.eu/) and
are provided free of charge, without restriction of use. For the full license information
see the [Copernicus Regulation.](http://www.copernicus.eu/main/data-access/)

If you are using the data as a layer in a published map, please include the following
attribution text:

> [!NOTE]
> **Attribution text:** "Source: EC JRC/Google"

## Get access to Earth Engine

Access to Earth Engine is free, but requires signup. To get access, please fill out our
[Earth Engine signup form](https://earthengine.google.com/signup)
to apply for an Evaluator account. Those granted access will receive an email within
a few business days with further instructions.

Once you're familiar with the Code Editor, [get started on the tutorial](https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/tutorials/tutorial_global_surface_water_02)!