Inland water bodies in China: Features discovered in the long term satellite data
Significance Inland water bodies (WBs) provide essential ecosystem services for human society, yet their characteristics and changes over large areas remain elusive. We used unprecedented data layers derived from Landsat imagery to quantify and decipher the spatial distributions and contemporary changes of WBs in China. The results shed light on the characteristics (e.g. abundance and size abundance and shoreline area relationships) and spatiotemporal dynamics of WBs. This study highlights the importance of using appropriate long term satellite data to reveal the true properties and dynamics of WBs over large areas, which is essential for developing theories and understanding the predominant impacts of human activities and climate change on water resources not only in China but also in other regions of the world. Water bodies (WBs) such as lakes, ponds, and impoundments, provide essential ecosystem services for human society, yet their characteristics and changes over large areas remain elusive. Here we used unprecedented data layers derived from all Landsat images available between 1984 and 2015 to understand the overall characteristics and changes of WBs between 2 epochs (i.e. 1984 to 1999 and 2000 to 2015) in China. Results show that the abundance estimate of WBs greater than 1 km2 and the total WB surface area were 0.3 to 1.5 times and 0.2 to 0.5 times more than the previous estimates, respectively. The size abundance and shoreline area relationships of WBs in China conformed to the classic power scaling law, in contradiction to most previous studies. WB changes with various occurrence probabilities show widespread coexistence of disappearance of existent and emergence of new WBs across China driven primarily by human activities and climate change. Our results highlight the importance of using appropriate long term satellite data to reveal the true properties and dynamics of WBs over large areas, which is essential for developing scaling theories and understanding the relative impacts of human activities and climate change on water resources in the world.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences