Impact of climate change and human activities on the spatiotemporal dynamics of surface water area in Gansu Province, China

Understanding the dynamics of surface water area and their drivers is crucial for human survival and ecosystem stability in inland arid and semi-arid areas.This study took Gansu Province,China,a typical area with complex terrain and variable climate,as the research subject.Based on Google Earth Engine,we used Landsat data and the Open-surface Water Detection Method with Enhanced Impurity Control method to monitor the spatiotemporal dynamics of surface water area in Gansu Province from 1985 to 2022,and quantitatively analyzed the main causes of regional differences in surface water area.The findings revealed that surface water area in Gansu Province expanded by 406.88 km2 from 1985 to 2022.Seasonal surface water area exhibited significant fluctuations,while permanent surface water area showed a steady increase.Notably,terrestrial water storage exhibited a trend of first decreasing and then increasing,correlated with the dynamics of surface water area.Climate change and human activities jointly affected surface hydrological processes,with the impact of climate change being slightly higher than that of human activities.Spatially,climate change affected the'source'of surface water to a greater extent,while human activities tended to affect the'destination'of surface water.Challenges of surface water resources faced by inland arid and semi-arid areas like Gansu Province are multifaceted.Therefore,we summarized the surface hydrology patterns typical in inland arid and semi-arid areas and tailored surface water'supply-demand'balance strategies.The study not only sheds light on the dynamics of surface water area in Gansu Province,but also offers valuable insights for ecological protection and surface water resource management in inland arid and semi-arid areas facing water scarcity.

Impacts of water surface area of watershed on design flood

In order to analyze the impact of the water surface area of a watershed on the design flood, the watershed was classified into a land watershed and a water surface watershed for flood flow calculation at the same time interval. Then, the design flood of the whole watershed was obtained by adding the two flood flows together. Using this method, we calculated design floods with different water surface areas of three reservoirs and analyzed the impact of water surface area on the flood volume and peak flow. The results indicate that larger water surface areas lead to greater impacts on the flood volume and peak flow. For the same watershed area, the impact of water surface area on the flood volume and peak flow is positively proportional to the flood frequency, i.e., the higher the frequency, the greater the impact becomes.

Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Surface Water in China from the 1980s to 2015 Based on Remote Sensing Monitoring

Climate change and human interference play significant roles on dynamic of water body abundance,and drive related hydrological,biochemical and social/economic processes.Documenting and monitoring surface water area with high resolution multi-temporal satellite imagery provide new perspective to evaluate the dynamics of surface water area,especially in continental and global scale.In this study,based on the Landsat images from 1980 s to 2015,we surveyed the spatial and temporal variation of surface water area,including rivers,lakes and reservoirs,in 10-yr temporal slice across China.Furthermore,the driving forces of the variation has been identified to reveal the interaction of water bodies and the changing environment.The results show that,the water surface area expanded over all three decades with strong spatial and temporal difference,despite the drier and warmer climate background;although lakes comprise the largest portion of the surface water area,the highest contributor of surface water expansion was new constructed reservoir located in the densely populated region;climatic parameters alteration,like precipitation and temperature,resulted in the water surface expansion in the northwestern basin by growing water input linked with rain and glacier melting;in the rest part of China,rise of water surface area was predominately attributed to human relocation of water resource,which yielded more new water storage area than the disappeared water body caused by less precipitation and stronger evapotranspiration.The conclusions highlight the integrative water resource management,especially in water conservation and restoration.