Investigation of the dramatic changes in lake level of the Bosten Lake in northwestern China

Abstract

Bosten Lake, located in the arid region of northwest China, is the largest inland freshwater lake in China. Water resources in Bosten Lake are of great importance for the regional drinking water supply, agricultural irrigation, and economic development of Xinjiang province. In this study, the dynamics of the lake level in Bosten Lake were investigated from 1956 to 2010. We found that the lake level experienced three different periods of change due to the combined influences of climate variation and human activities. Generally, the lake level has shown a significant downward trend since the first observation started in 1956 and dropped to its lowest level in 1987. Thereafter, the lake level presented a continuous upward trend and rose to its highest value in 2002. Then, the level decreased dramatically from 2002 to 2010. A water balance model and the climate elasticity method were used to estimate the reasons for the lake level changes of Bosten Lake. The results showed that an increase in lake evaporation led to the continuous decrease in lake level from 1958 to 1987. Then, human-controlled lake outflow and increasing lake inflow together led to the increase in lake level from 1988 to 2002. During 2003 to 2010, the emergency project of transferring water to Tarim River led to the increase in lake outflow, while the lake inflow obviously decreased because of a decrease in precipitation. These factors resulted in a sharp decrease in the lake level from 2003 to 2010. The changes in lake level indicate changes in available water resources from Bosten Lake. This reason for the analysis of the change in lake level in this study is to support the water resources management of Bosten Lake.