Satellites reveal widespread decline in global lake water storage

Fangfang Yao, Ben Livneh, Balaji Rajagopalan, Jida Wang, Jean François Crétaux, Yoshihide Wada, Muriel Berge-Nguyen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Climate change and human activities increasingly threaten lakes that store 87% of Earth’s liquid surface fresh water. Yet, recent trends and drivers of lake volume change remain largely unknown globally. Here, we analyze the 1972 largest global lakes using three decades of satellite observations, climate data, and hydrologic models, finding statistically significant storage declines for 53% of these water bodies over the period 1992–2020. The net volume loss in natural lakes is largely attributable to climate warming, increasing evaporative demand, and human water consumption, whereas sedimentation dominates storage losses in reservoirs. We estimate that roughly one-quarter of the world’s population resides in a basin of a drying lake, underscoring the necessity of incorporating climate change and sedimentation impacts into sustainable water resources management.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)743-749
Number of pages7
JournalScience
Volume380
Issue number6646
DOIs
StatePublished - May 19 2023
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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