Investigation of Meteorological Effects on Çivril Lake, Turkey, with Sentinel-2 Data on Google Earth Engine Platform

Abstract

Lakes and reservoirs, comprising surface water bodies that vary significantly seasonally, play an essential role in the global water cycle due to their ability to hold, store, and clean water. They are crucial to our planet’s ecology and climate systems. This study analyzed Harmonized Sentinel-2 images using the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud platform to examine the short-term changes in the surface water bodies of Çivril Lake from March 2018 to March 2023 with meteorological data and lake surface water temperature (LSWT). This study used the Sentinel-2 Level-2A archive, a cloud filter, the NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index), NDWI (normalized difference water index), MNDWI (modified NDWI), and SWI (Sentinel water index) methods on lake surfaces utilizing the GEE platform and the random forests (RFs) method to calculate the water surface areas. The information on the water surfaces collected between March 2018 and March 2023 was used to track the trend of changes in the lake’s area. The seasonal (spring, summer, autumn, and winter) yearly and monthly changes in water areas were identified. Precipitation, evaporation, and temperature are gathered meteorological parameters that impact the observed variation in surface water bodies for the same area. The correlations between the lake area reduction and the chosen meteorological parameters revealed a strong positive or negative significant association. Meteorological parameters and human activities selected during different seasons, months, and years have directly affected the shrinkage of the lake area.