All HydroBASINS layers were derived from World Wildlife Fund’s HydroSHEDS data based on a grid resolution of 15 arc-seconds (approximately 500 m at the equator). Watersheds were delineated in a consistent manner at different scales, and a hierarchical sub-basin breakdown was created following the topological concept of the Pfafstetter coding system. The resulting polygon layers are termed HydroBASINS and represent a subset of the HydroSHEDS database. This shapefile contains (sub-)basin polygons for Africa at Pfafstetter level 4.