Led by Dr. Huilin Gao, an associate professor in the Zachry Department of Social and Environmental Engineering at Texas A&M University, researchers have created a pool volume data evaporation (GLEV). It uses modeling and remote sensing to provide a long-term monthly network of 1.42 million natural ponds and artificial lakes worldwide. Although the evaporation capacity of these global lakes is great, little is known about their local distribution and its long-term tendency.
From 1985 to 2018, researchers found that the long-term evaporation rate of the lake increased by 3.12 cubic kilometers per year. Symptoms of a trend include an increase in evaporation rate of 58%, a reduction in ice cover of the lake by 23% and an increase in lake area by 19%.The results of the study emphasize the importance of using evaporation volume (rather than evaporation rate) as a key indicator of assessing the impact of climate on pond systems.
“We found that the longest evaporation of a lake is 1500 km or extends 150 cubic kilometers per year, which is 15.4% larger than previous estimates,” said first author Dr. Gang Zhao, a former Texas A&M student who is now a postdoctoral student. at the Department of Environmental Affairs at the Carnegie Institute for Science. “This suggests that evaporation of the lake plays a greater role in the hydrological cycle than previously thought.”
According to GLEV, 6,715 lakes occupy only 5% of the water storage capacity and 10% of all lakes (both natural and artificial). However, pools contribute 16% to the evaporation capacity. This rate of reservoir evaporation loss is equivalent to 20% of annual water use worldwide. Over the past 33 years, evaporation of lakes has risen by 5.4% per year, exceeding the global average of 2.1% for all lakes.
“In terms of evaporation losses, this study will be a very important resource for water resource researchers and decision makers,” Gao said. “What we have found has a profound effect on the environment, social and economic well-being as the evaporation rate will accelerate and intensify in the future under global warming.”From a global point of view, the total evaporation of a reservoir could be greater than the combined use of domestic and industrial water. However, even in the United States, very few lakes / dams have reliable evaporation data.”
Without accurate estimation of the magnitude and inclination of evaporation per volume in millions of earth’s lakes, researchers say that reliable estimates of water and energy resources will not be possible. This free database can benefit decision makers and the wider scientific community.”With the results of individual watersheds, GLEV could really help improve pool management decisions around the world, especially in the face of growing drought and population growth,” Gao said. “This database helps the scientific community to better understand the role these water resources play in Earth’s systems, from global climate forecasting, flood modeling and drought to global system simulations under climate change.”
For future work, researchers from Texas A&M, the Desert Research Institute and the U.S. The Bureau of Reclamation recently launched a nearly 1 million NASA Applied Science project focusing on improving satellite-based monitoring and forecasting, operational, daily and Western United States forecasts. The team will also expand an ongoing project to monitor the Texas water reservoir. Other participants in the study were Drs. Yao Li, assistant doctor of post-doctoral research in the department of social and environmental engineering at Texas A&M and Drs. Liming Zhou, professor in the department of air science and environment at The State University of New York.The study was funded by NASA, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation.
Source Journal Reference: Gang Zhao, Yao Li, Liming Zhou, Huilin Gao. Evaporative water loss of 1.42 million global lakes. Nature Communications, 2022; 13 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31125-6
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