Bodies of water large enough to be separately identified from the surrounding land. The size at which a water body can be considered “major” is dependent upon the resolution of the underlying land statistics. With the advent of geographic information systems technology and remotely sensed land statistics, it is possible to collect and manipulate large volumes of detailed land statistics. In countries in which these technologies are available, a “major” water body is likely to be defined to be smaller than in countries with more basic land statistics.