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Using High-resolution Remote Sensing Images to Detect Freshwater Ecosystem Changes – a New Perspective of Different Ecosystem Types and Shapes

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Abstract

Area statistics of large lakes is the most concerned primary indicator in existing studies of freshwater ecosystem (FE) dynamics in watershed-dominated regions (WDRs). However, large lakes alone cannot represent the complete status of WDRs, and the dynamic changes of some smaller water types, such as rivers, pits, and streams, need to be given more attention. In order to capture more refined spatiotemporal features of multiple FE types and provide important basis of FE management, multi-temporal high spatial resolution remote sensing images (< 5 m) were used to capture more detailed FE information and change tendencies in Jianghuai Ecological and Economic Zone (JHEEZ). Despite that the general change of total FE area was less than 5% from 2015 to 2018, even though the change in lake areas was only 0.12%, some different and interesting findings can be observed from different FE types and their shapes. First, different lakes exhibited different change features. Hongze Lake, which is the largest lake in JHEEZ, remained stable in the last three years, while some relatively small lakes, such as Gaoyou Lake and Baima Lake, demonstrated much more dynamic and complicated transformations, especially represented in the locally-variations of lake shorelines. In particular, both notable transfer in (polder areas changed into lakes) and transfer out (areas occupied by construction land and forestland) features could be observed in Baima Lake, which was driven by integrated roles of the ‘retreating to lakes’ project and tourism development. Second, small ponds represent the most significant increasing tendency. More than 500 km2 of new ponds were observed, in which more than 80% were transferred from arable land. These new pond regions were mainly located in the lake storage area and in the suburbs of major cities. All of these findings indicate that, the sub-types of FE that have small areas and scattered distribution features are more likely to undergo more dynamic changes than those of large lakes. Therefore, in addition to the dynamics changes of large lakes and their boundaries, this study also contributes to a deeper understanding of multiple small FE types. Furthermore, it is beneficial to more accurate freshwater resources management.

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Data Availability

Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request.

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Acknowledgments

The work was funded by The National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41671284) and Key Research Plans of Frontier Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (QYZDB-SSW-DQC038). Data were supported by Scientific Data Sharing Platform for Lake and Watershed, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Watershed Geographic Sciences, Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy Sciences, 73 East Beijing Road, Nanjing, 210008, People’s Republic of China

    Chen Lin

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Sustainable Forestry in Southern China of Jiangsu Province, College of Forestry, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, 210037, China

    Hao Cheng & Liangjie Wang

  3. College of Geographic Science, Nantong University, 226019, Nantong, China

    Chi Zhang

  4. Jiangsu Real Estate Registration Center, 210017, Nanjing, China

    Yang Zhang

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  1. Chen Lin
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  2. Hao Cheng
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  5. Liangjie Wang
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Correspondence to Chen Lin or Chi Zhang.

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Lin, C., Cheng, H., Zhang, C. et al. Using High-resolution Remote Sensing Images to Detect Freshwater Ecosystem Changes – a New Perspective of Different Ecosystem Types and Shapes. Water Resour Manage 34, 3565–3584 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-020-02636-y

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