Abstract
Abstract. Urban lakes play an important role in urban development and environmental protection, and lakes are an important city card of Wuhan city. We calculated the lake area of in Wuhan city from 1987 to 2019 and its change over time and in space by using the MNDWI method and the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, and explored the driving force of lake area changes by using Pearson correlation coefficient in this paper. The results show: (1) The lakes in Wuhan city were shrinking and the total area decreased from 837.89 km2 in 1987 to 734.10 km2 in 2019 at a rate of 3.15 km2 per year, but changed differently in different stages: increasing in the period of 1987 to1993, decreasing in the period of 1993 to 2004 while being stable in the period of 2004 to 2019. (2) The lakes were mainly distributed in the central and eastern parts of Wuhan city (i.e., Wuchang District, Jiangxia District, and Caidian District). (3) Climate factors and human activities have jointly affected the changes in lake area. In terms of climate factors, the total area of lakes had a strong correlation with precipitation and temperature. In terms of human activities, permanent population had a moderate correlation with the lake changes. The study verified the feasibility of monitoring the long-term lake sequence on the GEE platform, and provided reference for lake protection in Wuhan city.
Highlights
Urban lakes are an important part of urban wetland ecosystem, with functions such as climate regulation, urban water sources, flood control and water storage (Xie et al, 2018; Cuffney et al, 2010)
(3) Climate factors and human activities have jointly affected the changes in lake area
The study verified the feasibility of monitoring the long-term lake sequence on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, and provided reference for lake protection in Wuhan city
Summary
Urban lakes are an important part of urban wetland ecosystem, with functions such as climate regulation, urban water sources, flood control and water storage (Xie et al, 2018; Cuffney et al, 2010). The number and area of urban lakes have being greatly reducing, which has a serious impact on climate change, economic development and human activities (Zhang et al, 2015; Yang et al, 2015; Chen et al, 2015). Lakes are an important card of Wuhan city. The area of lakes in Wuhan city has decreased dramatically (Deng et al, 2017), causing a series of environmental and ecological problems, such as waterlogging and unsustainable development of the city. Due to the impact of the construction of some major projects such as the Three Gorges Dam, the groundwater level has dropped significantly, which is a serious challenge for the protection of lakes. It is extremely important to study the long-term temporal and spatial changes of the lakes since it has great strategic significance for improving the ecological environment and the sustainable development of Wuhan city
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