REMOTE SENSING ANALYSIS OF VOLUME IN TAIHU LAKE: APPLICATION FOR ICESAT/HYDROWEB AND LANDSAT DATA

Abstract. In order to evaluate the fluctuation of Taihui Lake, ICESat/Hydroweb and Landsat data recorded from 1975 to 2015 were used to examine changes in lake level and area, derived from Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI), which are combined to indirectly evaluate water volume variations and water balance of Taihu Lake. The results show that the time series of lake area and volume variations of Taihu Lake exhibit a gradually increasing trend from 1975 to 2015 and the value rose from 2320.07 km² and −0.0470 km³, respectively in 1975 to 2341.06 km² and 0.2759 km³, respectively in 2015. The water level of Taihu Lake demonstrates a fluctuating trend during 1975–2015 and the value changed from 0.9826 m in 1975 to 1.1359 m in 2015. There was a moderate correlation for Taihu Lake (R² ≈ 0.65) between water level and surface area. The water volume changes was in very good agreement for lake level changes and surface area variations (R² > 0.85). Combining with lake level and area changes, water balance of Taihu Lake was acquired and it shows a positive water budgets of 0.0092 km³ during past 40 years.