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Lakes are important natural resources and carbon gas emitters and are undergoing rapid changes worldwide in response to climate change and human activities. A detailed global characterization of lakes and their long-term dynamics does not exist, which is however crucial for evaluating the associated impacts on water availability and carbon emissions. Here, we map 3.4 million lakes on a global scale, including their explicit maximum extents and probability-weighted area changes over the past four decades. From the beginning period (1984–1999) to the end (2010–2019), the lake area increased across all six continents analyzed, with a net change of +46,278 km2, and 56% of the expansion was attributed to reservoirs. Interestingly, although small lakes (<1 km2) accounted for just 15% of the global lake area, they dominated the variability in total lake size in half of the global inland lake regions. The identified lake area increase over time led to higher lacustrine carbon emissions, mostly attributed to small lakes. Our findings illustrate the emerging roles of small lakes in regulating not only local inland water variability, but also the global trends of surface water extent and carbon emissions. Lakes are essential components of the hydrological and biogeochemical cycles. Here, Pi et al develop a global lake dataset called GLAKES via high-resolution satellite images and deep learning to examine global lake changes over four decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Planation surfaces (PS) play a major role in reconstruction of the evolutionary history of landforms in local areas. Thus, objective and consistent mapping of planation surfaces from remotely sensed data (e.g., satellite imagery, digital elevation models (DEMs)) is paramount for interpreting the geomorphological evolution. Due to the lack of dated sedimentary covers and the difficulties of comprehensive field work, the number and age of planation surfaces in the Southwest Hubei (湖北) Province of China are still controversial. In order to map the PS in the study area, four data visualization techniques including ETM+ false color composite, grey-scale DEM, shaded relief model (SRM) and painted relief model (PRM) were examined. It is found that the PRM is the most optimal technique for planation surface mapping. The study area was successfully mapped by visual interpretation of a PRM derived from ASTER GDEM. The mapped PS was divided into five classes in terms of elevation according to previous studies, varying from 1 700-2 000 (PS1), 1 300-1 500 (PS2), 1 000-1 200 (PS3), 800-900 (PS4) to 500-600 (PS5) m. The results were partially compared with the published works. It is revealed that this method of mapping enjoys a higher accuracy and can reduce the time and effort required in the traditional mapping to a large extent. The results also demonstrated that the PRM is an effective tool for geomorphological feature mapping with considerable accuracy. The preliminary results can serve to facilitate locating representative samples for the planation surfaces dating, thus to determine the ages of PS in the study areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basin-scale water volumes of lakes and reservoirs are difficult to obtain due to a number of challenges. In this study, area-based water storage estimation models are proposed for large lakes and reservoirs in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB). The models are subsequently applied to Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations of 128 large lakes and 108 reservoirs between 2000 and 2014, and the first comprehensive map of the temporal and spatial dynamics of water storage in large water bodies in the YRB is provided. The results show that 53.91% of the lakes experienced significant decreasing trends in water storage during this period, and the total water storage in lakes showed a decreasing trend of 14 million m3 month−1. By contrast, a monthly mean increase of 177 million m3 was observed for water storage in reservoirs. Our analysis revealed that the pronounced increase in reservoirs was primarily due to the rapid water level increase in the Three Gorges Reservoir in recent years, while understanding the water loss in lakes requires additional studies. The long-term data presented in this study provide critical baseline information for future water resource monitoring and regulation in the YRB and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]