青藏高原位于中国西南部、亚洲中部,平均海拔高程大于4000 m,面积约300万km2,是“世界屋脊”,与周边地区一起常被称为地球的“第三极”。青藏高原分布着约1200个面积大于1 km2的湖泊,占中国湖泊数量与面积的一半;同时也是黄河、长江、恒河、印度河等大河的源头,被称为“亚洲水塔”。近几十年来,在全球变暖的背景下,青藏高原升温更加突出,其能量与水循环发生了显著变化,气候趋于暖湿化,冰川加速消融,湖面水位上升。湖泊是气候变化的重要指标,青藏高原湖泊分布密集、人为活动影响较小,多源遥感数据的广泛应用,为监测高原湖泊变化提供了难得的契机。本文依托国家自然科学基金青年项目“基于多源遥感的青藏高原内流区湖泊水量变化及水体相态转换研究(2000-2009年)”,主要研究进展为：初步查明了西藏高原的湖泊数量、面积及水位变化与时空格局,以及湖泊水量变化与水量平衡;探讨了湖泊变化对气候变化的响应。目前对青藏高原湖泊的变化及驱动因素虽有一些认识,但其定量的水量平衡及驱动机制还有待于进一步研究。这对了解世界第三极、一带一路国家和地区水资源状况与变化、生态文明和生态安全屏障建设具有重要的意义,同时也可为第三极国家公园的建立提供重要的科学基础。

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is located in the southwest of China and central Asia, with a mean elevation higher than 4000 m and area of 3×106 km2. It is named "the roof of the world". The TP and surrounding areas together is also called "the Third Pole". The TP has 1200 lakes greater than 1 km2 in area, which accounts for approximately 50% of the total number and area of lakes in China. It is the sources of the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween, and the Mekong, and therefor known as "Asia's water tower". In the past several decades, the TP experienced a faster warming than other regions in the world. The climate of the TP is also getting wetting. Lakes are indicators of climate change. The TP has the dense distribution of lakes with little disturbance of human activities. The utilization of multi-sensors’ data has provided a useful tool to monitor lake change in the remote TP. Several studies of lake changes have been conducted focusing on the following scientific questions: (1) how many lakes are on the TP and what are the spatial and temporal changes of the number, area, and abundance of these lakes? (2) the increased mass over the TP from glaciers or lakes? (3) under anthropogenic warming, how did the water and cryosphere cycles change on the two adjacent largest Plateaus in the world, the Tibetan and the Mongolian Plateaus, over the last four decades? and (4) how did the lake water storage and water balance change? These studies are of great significance to the understanding of the third pole of the world, the state of regional water resources and changes, and ecological civilization and ecological security construction. They also provide an important scientific basis for the planning of the third polar national park. The quantitative understanding of lake water balance and mechanisms and driving factors of lake change needs further work in the future.

青藏高原地区特殊的大气圈、水圈、冰冻圈、生物圈等多圈层相互作用过程及其变化,不仅对青藏高原及其周边地区的气候格局和变化有重要影响,而且对东亚、北半球乃至全球的环流形势和异常产生深远影响。为此,全球变化研究重大科学研究计划于2010年9月启动了#cod#x0201c;青藏高原气候系统变化及其对东亚区域的影响与机制研究#cod#x0201d;项目,旨在开展青藏高原环境、地表过程、生态系统对全球变化的响应及其对周边地区人类生存环境影响的综合交叉研究,以揭示青藏高原气候系统变化及其对东亚区域的影响机制,提出前瞻性的应对气候变化与异常的策略,减少其导致的区域自然灾害的损失。项目实施近3年来,开展了青藏高原首次#cod#x0201c;星#cod#x02014;机#cod#x02014;地#cod#x0201d;综合立体协同观测试验和大规模地气相互作用综合观测试验。在遥感结合地面观测估算青藏高原地表特征参数和能量通量方法,高原地区上对流层和下平流层结构,高原季风与东亚季风和南亚季风之间的内在联系,中国及青藏高原地区太阳辐射和风速的年代际变化趋势,青藏高原春季感热源减弱及其对亚洲夏季风和中国东部降水的影响,以及极高海拔地区土地覆被格局等方面取得了一些突出进展。

The interaction between atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere and biosphere of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) significantly affects not only climate pattern and climate change in local and surrounding area, but also the Asian monsoon process and the global atmospheric circulation. The study of the #cod#x0201c;Tibet Plateau climate system change and mechanism of its impact on East Asia#cod#x0201d;, a project of the National Key Scientific Research Program of China for Global Change Study, was initiated in September of 2010. It aimed at performing integrated research on the Tibetan Plateau climate system responding to global change and its impact on surrounding areas, collaborating on major scientific issues to achieve breakthrough in scientific research on the Tibet Plateau climate system change and mechanism of its impact on East Asia, proposing prospective strategy coping with abnormal climate change to reduce regional natural disaster losses. A simultaneous and coordinated experiment of airborne remote sensing and groundbased observation was carried out in TP for the first time. And a series of research results have been achieved in the past three years of project implementation. The results include determination of regional distributions and seasonal variations of land surface heat fluxes in whole TP region, behavior of the tropopause folding events over the west TP, definition of plateau monsoon and its association with general circulation anomalies, decrements of solar radiation and wind speed across China and TP area in recent decades and their possible causes, weaken trend of sensible heat source in the spring over TP and its impact on the Asian summer monsoon, and classification of land cover in high altitude region of Mount Qomolangma, etc.

Inland lakes and alpine glaciers are important water resources on the Tibetan Plateau. Understanding their variation is crucial for accurate evaluation and prediction of changes in water supply and for retrieval and analysis of climatic information. Data from previous research on 35 alpine lakes on the Tibetan Plateau were used to investigate changes in lake water level and area. In terms of temporal changes, the area of the 35 alpine lakes could be divided into five groups: rising, falling-rising, rising-falling, fluctuating, and falling. In terms of spatial changes, the area of alpine lakes in the Himalayan Mountains, the Karakoram Mountains, and the Qaidam Basin tended to decrease; the area of lakes in the Naqu region and the Kunlun Mountains increased; and the area of lakes in the Hoh Xil region and Qilian Mountains fluctuated. Changes in lake water level and area were correlated with regional changes in climate. Reasons for changes in these lakes on the Tibetan Plateau were analyzed, including precipitation and evaporation from meteorological data, glacier meltwater from the Chinese glacier inventories. Several key problems, e.g. challenges of monitoring water balance, limitations to glacial area detection, uncertainties in detecting lake water-level variations and variable region boundaries of lake change types on the Tibetan Plateau were discussed. This research has most indicative significance to regional climate change.

Most lakes have undergone significant changes on the Tibetan Plateau in recent decades, affecting water resources on the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding areas. In this paper, we investigated the variations of 25 lakes in five sub-regions on the Tibetan Plateau from 1972 to 2019 based on SRTM DEM data and Landsat imagery. We used a method to derive lake-levels based on DEM and lake boundaries delineated from Landsat imagery, and then calculated the changes in lake area, level, and volume in 1972 to 2019. We also analyzed the potential impacts of temperature, precipitation, glacial and permafrost melting in lake changes during this period. The results show that the lakes tended to shrink until 2010 in southern and western plateau, after which they began to expand gradually but the overall trend is still shrinking. Limited meltwater from glaciers and permafrost and low precipitation are the main reasons for their shrinkage. The lakes in the central plateau, northwest plateau and northeast plateau tend to expand overall. The reason for the expansion of the lakes is not only precipitation but also the melting of glaciers and permafrost. Overall, the lake changes have gone through 3 phases, namely a slight decrease during 1972-2000, a rapid increase during 2000-2010, and a slowdown in the last decade (2010-2019). Multiple factors such as temperature, precipitation, the state of glaciers and permafrost have contributed to the changes in the lake.

The Tibetan Plateau has the largest lake cluster in China and in the world. In order to clarify the differences of lake hydrochemistry of Tibetan Plateau, water samples were collected from 32 lakes, including 22 tectonic lakes and 11 glacial lakes, along the Tibetan Plateau road, from September to October 2016. We detected and analyzed the major ion concentrations and characteristics of samples, and discuss the hydrochemistry type, controlling factors, and major ion sources of lake water. The results showed that, firstly, tectonic lake samples on the Tibetan Plateau have much higher physicochemical parameters and ion contents than glacial lakes, and Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) contents fluctuate from high to low latitudes. The variations of ion concentrations in the northern part of the Qiagui Co were more fluctuating and have two obvious peaks, while the variations in the southern part were moderate. The TDS of glacial lakes were low and leveling off in the upper and middle reaches of the basin, while higher and more variable in the lower reaches. Secondly, the tectonic lakes were mainly chloride saline lakes, with Na+ as the major cation, and SO42−, Cl− as the major anions. Glacial lakes were mainly carbonate and sulfate type lakes, Ca2+ and Mg2+ were the major cations, HCO3− was the major anion, and SO42− was the second. Thirdly, the hydrochemistry processes of the tectonic lakes were mainly controlled by evaporation-crystallization, and the ions mainly came from the evaporites of basin. Glacial lake water samples were mainly influenced by the weathering of basin rocks, with ion sources strongly influenced by the weathering of basin carbonates than evaporites, with calcite and dolomite being important sources of Ca2+, Mg2+, and HCO3−.

冰湖溃决是我国西藏地区典型的地质灾害类型之一，具有突发性强、规模大、破坏力强和危害范围广等特点，往往造成下游地区遭受惨重的生命财产损失。冰湖溃决成因特征是形成机制、早期识别和危险性评价等冰湖溃决研究的基础，受客观条件限制，我国西藏冰湖溃决的基础调查工作存在资料分散甚至缺失的局限性。为解决这个难题，通过资料收集、遥感解译和野外调查等技术手段，重新梳理了我国西藏地区的冰湖溃决事件及基本特征，共调查出33个冰湖37次溃决事件，其中2个为冰川阻塞湖（简称冰川湖），划定了冰湖溃决高发地带的地理分布位置，分析出冰崩/冰滑坡、埋藏冰融化、冰川融水、强降水、泥石流和上游冰湖溃决洪水6种诱发原因，为我国西藏冰湖溃决研究提供基础调查成果和参考依据。

Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are a major concern in the Himalaya and on the Tibetan Plateau (TP), where several disasters occurring over the past century have caused significant loss of life and damage to infrastructure. This study responds directly to the needs of local authorities to provide guidance on the most dangerous glacial lakes across TP where local monitoring and other risk reduction strategies can subsequently be targeted. Specifically, the study aims to establish a first comprehensive prioritisation ranking of lake danger for TP, considering both the likelihood and possible magnitude of any outburst event (hazard), and the exposure of downstream communities. A composite inventory of 1,291 glacial lakes (>0.1 km) was derived from recent remote sensing studies, and a fully automated and object assessment scheme was implemented using customised GIS tools. Based on four core determinates of GLOF hazard (lake size, watershed area, topographic potential for ice/rock avalanching, and dam steepness), the scheme accurately distinguishes the high to very high hazard level of 19 out of 20 lakes that have previously generated GLOFs. Notably, 16% of all glacial lakes threaten human settlements, with a hotspot of GLOF danger identified in the central Himalayan counties of Jilong, Nyalam, and Dingri, where the potential trans-boundary threat to communities located downstream in Nepal is also recognised. The results provide an important and object scientific basis for decision-making, and the methodological approach is ideally suited for replication across other mountainous regions where such first-order studies are lacking.Copyright © 2019 Science China Press. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Due to their special geographical locations and environments, plateau lakes play a key role in maintaining regional water balance, but lake water storage changes are upsetting this balance. Based on data from lakes on the Tibetan Plateau (TP), this study used the Spatial Processes in Hydrology (SPHY) model to simulate the runoff process in the Siling Co basin from 2000 to 2016 and estimated the changes in water storage of Siling Co and the contribution of each component of runoff into the lake. The results showed that the water storage capacity of Siling Co has increased by 1.2 billion m3/yr, and the lake area continues to expand; declines in precipitation have significantly reduced baseflow (BF), rainfall runoff (RR), and snow runoff (SR), while temperature increases have raised glacier runoff (GR). The simulated average runoff showed that BF, GF, RR, and SR contribute 24%, 22%, 16%, and 38%, respectively, of the flow into Siling Co. Based on hypothetical climate change scenarios and two Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP1-2.6 and SSP3-7.0) from the MRI-ESM2-0 GCMs, this study estimated that a 10% increase in precipitation could lead to a 28% increase in total runoff, while a 1 °C increase in temperature could lead to a 10% decrease in runoff. The average runoff depth of the basin is expected to increase by 30–39 mm, since the temperature and precipitation may increase significantly from 2020 to 2050. The intensification of glacial melting caused by the increase in temperature continues, posing a greater challenge to many water resources management problems caused by the expansion of lakes.

Although the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) onboard the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) was primarily designed for glacier and sea-ice measurement, it can also be applied to monitor lake surface height (LSH). However, its performance in monitoring lakes/reservoirs has rarely been assessed. Here, we report an accuracy evaluation of the ICESat-2 laser altimetry data over 30 reservoirs in China using gauge data. To show its characteristics in large-scale lake monitoring, we also applied an advanced radar altimeter SARAL (Satellite for ARgos and ALtika) and the first laser altimeter ICESat (Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite) to investigate all lakes and reservoirs (>10 km2) in China. We found that the ICESat-2 has a greatly improved altimetric capability, and the relative altimetric error was 0.06 m, while the relative altimetric error was 0.25 m for SARAL. Compared with SARAL and ICESat data, ICESat-2 data had the lowest measurement uncertainty (the standard deviation of along-track heights; 0.02 m vs. 0.17 m and 0.07 m), the greatest temporal frequency (3.43 vs. 1.35 and 1.48 times per year), and the second greatest lake coverage (636 vs. 814 and 311 lakes). The precise LSH profiles derived from the ICESat-2 data showed that most lakes (90% of 636 lakes) had a quasi-horizontal LSH profile (measurement uncertainty <0.05 m), and special methods are needed for mountainous lakes or shallow lakes to extract precise LSHs.