ATTRIBUTION ANALYSIS OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND HUMAN ACTIVITIES TO WATER VOLUME VARIATION IN LARGE LAKES

• Main Authors: Lin, Y., Gao, C., Li, X., Zhang, T., Yu, J., Rong, Y., Li, L., Zhou, X., Cai, J., Sneeuw, N.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anthropogenic factors; Climate change; Coefficients; Correlation coefficient; Correlation coefficients; Earth surface; Economic development; Economics; El Nino; El Nino phenomena; Evaporation; Geographic information systems; Geographical information systems; Global climate; Human influences; Information systems; Lakes; Land use; Population growth; Precipitation; Regional development; Regional planning; Remote sensing; Socioeconomic aspects; Southern Oscillation; Surface water; Sustainable development; Transboundary waters; Volume transport; Water bodies; Water level fluctuations; Water levels; Water resources; Water use; Watersheds
• ISSN: 2194-9034; 1682-1750; 2194-9034
• DOI: 10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-1-W2-2023-443-2023

Lakes are important components of the Earth's surface water bodies, and their fluctuating water levels and changing water volumes can have an important impact on ecological processes and landscape patterns within a watershed. Climate change and human activities are the main drivers of water volume changes in lakes. We applied a long time series analysis approach using classical statistics and geographic information system (GIS) technics to quantitatively attribute water volume variations in Lake Victoria from 2000 to 2019. We examined several drivers of lake water volume variations: meteorological factors including regional climate change (precipitation, evaporation) and global climate change (El Niño/Southern Oscillation events), and anthropogenic factors including socio-economic development and land use/cover change. The results show that regional climate change has a greater impact on lake water volume variations than global climate change; among them, the correlation coefficient between precipitation and lake water volume variations is the largest (0.410), with an impact lag of 1 month. For anthropogenic factors, variations in lake water volume are more pronounced in areas with rapid economic development and high population growth, with correlation coefficients greater than 0.440. Different types of land use/cover have varying impacts on Lake Victoria's water volume variations. Overall, the influence of anthropogenic factors is greater than that of meteorological factors. This study results not only provides a scientific basis for exploring the hydrological changes and their drivers in the world's large transboundary lakes, but also be great scientific significance to rational use of water resources and sustainable regional development.