About disappearance of a large Lake Ebi-Nur, Xinjiang, China

Abstract

This research considers the process of degradation of the large, bitter-salty Lake Ebi-Nur, located in the Xinjiang (Northwest China), on the border with Kazakhstan. Satellite monitoring using LANDSAT-8 and SENTINEL-2 in recent years has shown the continuation of the process of rapid shallowing of this water body. The area of the lake water mirror decreased from 900 km2 in 2018 to 210 km2 in 2021. The reasons for the degradation of Lake Ebi-Nur are the withdrawal of a significant amount of river’s runoff for arable land irrigation, against the background of three (2019-2021) strongly low-water years. The stability of the water mirror area of Lake Ebi-Nur and the cultivation of over 600 thousand hectares of irrigated arable land in its basin is possible only with the alternation of low-water and high-water years. Three sharply low-water years in a row have brought the lake to a critical state. The continuation of low water in 2022, most likely, will transfer this lake to the state of a salt marsh. The degradation of Lake Ebi-Nur carries significant environmental risks. This lake is located in a natural area of very strong winds (Dzungarian Gate). The drained parts of lake’s bottom become sources of salt storms in direction to agricultural lands and large settlements, including the capital of Xinjiang, city Urumqi. A definite solution to the problem may be the transfer of additional water resources to the Lake Eb-Nur basin from the neighboring water-surplus valleys of the Ili River or the Kara-Ertis River. However, these rivers are transboundary (China-Kazakhstan) and additional returnable seizures of their water resources to the Lake Ebi-Nur will be hard perceived in Kazakhstan.