ICESat/GLAS-derived changes in the water level of Hulun Lake, Inner Mongolia, from 2003 to 2009

Abstract

Hulun Lake is the largest freshwater lake in northern Inner Mongolia and even minor changes in its level may have major effects on the ecology of the lake and the surrounding area. In this study, we used high-precision elevation data for the interval from 2003–2009 measured by the Geoscience Laser Altimetry System (GLAS) on board the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) to assess annual and seasonal water level variations of Hulun Lake. The altimetry data of 32 satellite tracks were processed using the RANdom SAmple Consensus algorithm (RANSAC) to eliminate elevation outliers, and subsequently the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) was used to delineate the area of the lake. From 2003–2009, the shoreline of Hulun Lake retreated westwards, which was especially notable in the southern part of the lake. There was only a small decrease in water level, from 530.72 m to 529.22 m during 2003–2009, an average rate of 0.08 m/yr. The area of the lake decreased at a rate of 49.52 km²/yr, which was mainly the result of the shallow bathymetry in the southern part of the basin. The decrease in area was initially rapid, then much slower, and finally rapid again. Generally, the lake extent and water level decreased due to higher temperatures, intense evaporation, low precipitation, and decreasing runoff. And their fluctuations were caused by a decrease in intra-annual temperature, evaporation, and a slight increase in precipitation. Overall, a combination of factors related to climate change were responsible for the variations of the water level of Hulun Lake during the study interval. The results improve our understanding of the impact of climate change on Hulun Lake and may facilitate the formulation of response strategies.

Keywords

ICESat/GLAS altimetry / water level / Hulun Lake / arid area / climate change

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the national ‘‘12th Five-Year Plan” Project for Science and Technology Support (Grant No. 2013DAK05B01) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61631011). In addition, the authors are grateful to Prof. Lei Wang, Department of Geography & Anthropology at Louisiana State University, for sharing the data extraction method used in this study and to thank Prof. Hui Jiang who is a professor in School of Geographic Sciences at East China Normal University, and Prof. Lizhong Yu who is a professor in New York University Shanghai, for their great help for language revision. There is no conflicts of interest and financial disclosures.

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