Agricultural expansion and forest degradation accelerate riverine phosphorus export across Africa under hydrological amplification

The African Riverine Total Phosphorus Dataset (ARTPD) is the first continental-scale dataset of riverine total phosphorus (TP) concentration and TP flux across Africa. It was generated from Landsat 5–9 water surface reflectance data at HydroBASINS Level 4 outlet stations, using Google Earth Engine and a hybrid machine-learning framework calibrated with in-situ water quality observations from the GEMStat. The processing workflow includes automated quality assessment, inter-calibration among Landsat sensors, and computation of key water-column spectral indices and band ratios prior to model development. The dataset provides a valuable resource for monitoring nutrient pollution, assessing river water quality, and supporting freshwater management across Africa.