Long-Term Change of Lake Water Storage and Its Response to Climate Change for Typical Lakes in Arid Xinjiang, China

Abstract

Lakes play a role as the sentinel of climate change. Surrounded by vast expanses of barren land with limited infrastructure, there is also a lack of knowledge about the dynamics of dryland lakes. The change of lake area can be effectively monitored by remote sensing, and multi-source satellite altimetry datasets provide the possibility to obtain long-term lake water level data. Using the Global Surface Water Monthly Historical dataset and altimetry water level dataset (Hydroweb), we reconstructed a time series of lake water storage changes in Xinjiang, Northwestern China, by establishing the empirical models based on the statistical relationship between the surface area and water level of each lake. We further explored lake response to climate change. The results show that the storage of water at Ayakkum Lake, Aqqikkol Lake and Aksayquin Lake have been undergoing an obvious expanding trend from 2000 to 2020, at a rate of 3.59×108m3/a, 9.43×108m3/a and 0.44×108m3/a, respectively. In the plain and transition zone, Ulungur Lake showed an upward tendency (0.413×108m3/a) in water storage, while Manas Lake and Bosten Lake experienced shrinkage with descending rates of −0.1×108m3/a and −0.86×108m3/a. Temperature changes significantly affect the lake water storage on plateaus, especially those lakes supplied with a large proportion of glacial meltwater. Precipitation is a key factor for changes of lake storage in the plain and transition zones. Meanwhile, extreme weather and man-made factors also play crucial roles. To reduce the risk of flood and drought disasters, rational regulation of water resources is required, and a large-scale integrated catchment management plan can avoid inadvertent trade-offs. This research provides a new perspective for lake water storage inversion, as well as data support for water resources management in arid areas including Xinjiang.

Spatio-Temporal Distribution Characteristics of Glacial Lakes in the Altai Mountains with Climate Change from 2000 to 2020

“…The majority of the water that is found in glacial lakes comes from two sources: glacier meltwater, and precipitation from the atmosphere [69]. If the supply of water is greater than the outflow and evaporation, then the surface area of the glacial lakes increases, and if these conditions are reversed, then it decreases [70].…”

Monitoring Surface Water Area Changes in the Aral Sea Basin Using the Google Earth Engine Cloud Platform

“…(iii) Pixel-level datasets provide time-series raster maps of surface water bodies, usually constructed from multi-temporal remote sensing images [4]. For example, the Joint Research Centre Global Surface Water (JRC GSW) dataset [21] documents the location and temporal distribution of surface waters from 1984 to 2020 at 30 m resolution based on the Landsat satellite images, and many studies have made attempts to monitor the surface water changes using the JRC GSW dataset [22,23]. In addition, some land cover/use (LCLU) data also document the interannual variations in surface water bodies, such as the European Space Agency's Climate Change Initiative Land Cover (ESA-CCI-LC) product [24] and the MODIS Land Cover Dynamics product [25].…”