Regional variations in lake areas in China due to human and natural environmental factors since 1990

作者：Haowei Xu, Zhang Fei, C.Y. Jim, Ngai Weng Chan, Mou Leong Tan, Lifei Wei, Xinwen Lin, Guanghui Hu, Shuting Wang, Qinghua Qiao · 发表于：Ecological Indicators · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113307 · 被引用次数：13 · 研究领域：Flood Risk Assessment and Management、Hydrology and Watershed Management Studies、Environmental Changes in China

• The effectiveness of five water indices varied when extracting lake areas in China's five major regions. • This study analyzed the seasonal and interannual variations of lakes larger than 50 km 2 in China over the past 34 years. • The QTP_LR was highly sensitive to climate change, while other regions were more affected by human activities. • PLS-SEM showed significant advantages in quantifying the interactions between climatic, hydrological and human factors. Lakes indicate and regulate global environmental changes and regional climate. China’s highly uneven lake distribution and pronounced spatial variations in lake-area changes have remained unclear. The study aimed to understand the patterns and underlying drivers of lake-area changes in China over the past 34 years, focusing on regional variations influenced by climatic (temperature, precipitation, and climate water deficit), hydrological (runoff, snow water equivalent, palmer drought severity index, and soil moisture content), and human (farmland area, building area, fractional vegetation cover, population, gross value of industrial output, total output value of primary production, and gross domestic product) factors. The Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform and Landsat series remote sensing images were enlisted. Catering to regional variations in natural and cultural traits, five water indices extracted the areas of lakes and reservoirs larger than 50 km2 in China’s five major lake regions. Factor analysis and Mann-Kend...