Long-Term Evaporation Changes of the Lakes in Tibetan Plateau

Abstract:

Long-term changes in the water budget of lakes in the Tibetan Plateau due to climate change are of great interest not only for the importance of water management, but also for the critical challenge due to the lack of observations. There were no any meteorological observation stations or hydrological stations in many lake basins in the Tibetan Plateau. Some publications in the literature concerned about the climate, environment and hydrogeological factors. But the continuous long time series of lake level and water storage haven’t been acquired and the hydrological simulation with higher accuracy is lack. Multisensoral remote sensing is a valuable method to gather the necessary water budget components with appropriate spatial coverage and with high temporal resolutions.

Long-term changes of lake water area and volume depend on the changes of lake water budget. Evaporation is an important item of water expenditure. And the lake evaporation is essential to analysis the water balance response to climate change. Quantification of hydrologic fluxes, including evaporation, also is required to address issues related to water quality, recreation, and ecological processes. Accurate measurements of evaporation were required as part of a long-term study of hydrological and ecological processes at lakes in TP.

In the present study the evaporations of eight lakes in TP were calculated using energy balance method during 1981 to 2010. And the mean annual evaporation during 1981 to 2010 for Nam Co, Dangre Yumco, Zhari Namco, Taro Co, Mapang Yumco, Peiku Co, Pumo Yumco, Chen Co is 1261.46mm, 1276.06mm, 1393.88mm, 1361.43mm, 1460.29mm, 1181.82mm and 1397.94mm, respectively.