Among the terrestrial water cycle components,Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS) is one of the most difficult to estimate due to the lack of observed data.River and Reservoir storages are two sub-components of TWS closely related to human impacts on hydrology.In this study,a 28-year (1980-2007) land surface model (LSM) simulation at the global 1° × 1° resolution,after validating with observed streamflow and the satellite GRACE TWS data in 20 selected large river basins worldwide,is used to investigate the role of rivers in the terrestrial water cycle.